Born in 1981, RIE Young-zin started her career in the show business as a fashion model, first walking the catwalk in 1998, in Singapore, for designer HA Sang Beg’s collection. Often featured on the covers of fashion magazines and in commercials, it wouldn’t take long before she moved to cinema, and her first role was as the lead in the 1999 high school horror film <Memento Mori> (1999), which is widely acknowledged as one of the first commercial films in Korea to fe...More

Born in 1981, RIE Young-zin started her career in the show business as a fashion model, first walking the catwalk in 1998, in Singapore, for designer HA Sang Beg’s collection. Often featured on the covers of fashion magazines and in commercials, it wouldn’t take long before she moved to cinema, and her first role was as the lead in the 1999 high school horror film <Memento Mori> (1999), which is widely acknowledged as one of the first commercial films in Korea to feature queer representation. The Baeksang Art Awards and the Korean Association of Film Critics both bestowed her a Best New Actress accolade, but this happened all so soon, RIE didn’t fully realize the importance of these awards and believed she had just been lucky. In the following years, as she became more interested in pursuing an acting career, she strived to break the image of high school student she had since the critical success of <Memento Mori>. As a result, her next film credit, in <A.F.R.I.K.A.> (2002), was for the role of an ex-convict who took the blame for her ex-boyfriend’s con and now seeks revenge as she gets involved with two women on a rebellious rampage after finding guns. She was later seen in the romcom <Crazy Waiting> (2007) and the horror film <Yoga> (2009), as well as part of the main cast of the drama series <Smile Again> (2006). In 2009, she was chosen to be the honorary ambassador of the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival. As she was looking for opportunities to show her acting range, she soon felt too limited by the roles she was habitually offered, many of them minor. Fortunately for her, she crossed path with director KANG Jin-a, who had never seen any of RIE’s movies before and thus had no preconceived notions about her capabilities, and so RIE headlined the indie drama <Dear Dolphin> (2012). However, for most of the 2010s, she ended up being best known for her participation to various TV programs centered on fashion and modeling, despite appearances in <SORI: Voice from the Heart> (2015) and <YOU CALL IT PASSION> (2015). In 2019, she could be seen playing the prosecutor in courtroom drama <Juror 8> (2019), and a disease specialist in the series <Doctor Detective> (2019).Less