Kim Jongsoo, born in 1964, wanted to be an actor ever since he saw the stage musical <Jesus Christ Superstar>, but his parents talked him out of it, and he eventually decided to major in chemistry. In 1984, as he was attending college in the city of Ulsan, he learned that local theatre company Gorae was looking for new members and so applied for it. Kim being a skinny young man, when the troupe decided to produce <Equus> the following year, he was naturally the fi...More

Kim Jongsoo, born in 1964, wanted to be an actor ever since he saw the stage musical <Jesus Christ Superstar>, but his parents talked him out of it, and he eventually decided to major in chemistry. In 1984, as he was attending college in the city of Ulsan, he learned that local theatre company Gorae was looking for new members and so applied for it. Kim being a skinny young man, when the troupe decided to produce <Equus> the following year, he was naturally the first to be considered for the lead role of Alan. In 2006, after more than 70 productions under his belt, including several that he directed himself, Kim moved to films with a first credit in Lee Changdong’s <Secret Sunshine> (2007), which competed at the Cannes Film Festival. Brought to wider notice through supporting roles in <Poongsan> (2011), written and produced by Kim Kiduk, Yoon Jongbin’s historical mob film <Nameless Gangster : Rules of Time> (2011), and more particularly the cultural phenomenon series <Misaeng: Incomplete Life>, Kim Jongsoo has been very active on both the big and smaller screens ever since, with his yearly credits often reaching the double digits. In that regard, 2016 stands out as his most prolific so far, as he could be seen in cinemas in <A Violent Prosecutor> (2015) and <INSANE> (2015), both released in the first months of the year, as well as in the hit disaster drama <Tunnel> (2016), the period piece <The Map Against the World> (2016), the gangster movie <Asura : The City of Madness> (2016), the critically acclaimed indie lesbian romance <Our Love Story> (2016), and the crime-comedy <The Sheriff In Town> (2016). More recently, he made notable appearances in the historical ensemble drama <1987: When the Day Comes> (2017), the feel-good drama <Innocent Witness> fronted by Jung Woosung and Kim Hyanggi, and the smash hit comedy <Extreme Job> (2018), which became the second most-watched film ever in Korea. The year 2019 saw him appear in <Bring Me Home> (2019), <START-UP> (2019) and <Baseball Girl> (2019), and he has also been a recurring character in the hit Netflix Original series <Kingdom> since 2019. After a credit in <SAMJIN COMPANY ENGLISH CLASS> (2020), he was back on screens in 2022 in the political thriller <Kingmaker> (2021)Less