SHIM Eun-ha, born in 1972, debuted in 1992 as a stage actor before passing an audition for actors held by TV broadcaster MBC the following year and making her first screen appearance a few months later in the family soap opera <Under the Same Roof> (1993). Her starring role in the hit basketball TV series <The Last Match> (1994) propelled SHIM to stardom almost instantly to become one of the most famous Korean actresses of the decade, and also earned her Best New ...More

SHIM Eun-ha, born in 1972, debuted in 1992 as a stage actor before passing an audition for actors held by TV broadcaster MBC the following year and making her first screen appearance a few months later in the family soap opera <Under the Same Roof> (1993). Her starring role in the hit basketball TV series <The Last Match> (1994) propelled SHIM to stardom almost instantly to become one of the most famous Korean actresses of the decade, and also earned her Best New Actress in the television category of the Baeksang Arts Awards, the first acting accolade of her career. She followed it soon after with a lead part in <M> (1994), one of the rare horror series of the time. Having made her film debut in <My Old Sweetheart> (1995), she co-starred JUNG Woo-sung the next year in the action drama <Born To Kill> (1996). The year 1998 was a landmark one for SHIM, as she played the female lead in two movies that would become cult classics. She first appeared as the muse of a fatally ill photographer played by HAN Suk-kyu in HUR Jin-ho’s critically praised <Christmas in August> (1998), considered as one of the best romantic drama films ever made in Korea, and later showed another side of her acting abilities with the role of a penniless screenwriter who lives from day to day in LEE Jeong-hyang’s <Art Museum by the Zoo> (1998), which set a new standard for Korean rom-com movies. Needless to say, these two movies allowed her to pick up top acting honors at several of the most prestigious award ceremonies in Korea. The next year, she scored another success with her performance as a woman planning her long-awaited vengeance in TV series <Trap of Youth> (1999), before reuniting with HAN in <Tell Me Something> (1999), a much expected thriller film that sold a whopping 1.2 million tickets. After one last appearance in melodrama <Interview> (2000), in which she starred alongside LEE Jung-jae, SHIM announced that she was retiring from acting, a decision taken in large part due to the media frenzy surrounding rumors of a cancelled engagement. She never went back on her decision, and instead devoted her time to studying and painting. After her marriage to a preeminent politician in 2005, she has been staying away from cameras, with the exception of the Seoul Open Art Fair in 2009 where she exhibited her paintings. Despite her short career, she went down in history as one of the best Korean actresses of the 90s. Less