Artist Profile
- Full Name: Kim Go-eun
- Native Name: 김고은
- Nicknames: Go Eun
- Birthday: Jul 02, 1991 (34 years old)
- Blood Type: B
- Height/Weight: 167 cm (5’6") / 55 kg (121 lbs)
- Gender: Female
- Zodiac Sign: Cancer
- Debut: 2012
- Birthplace: Seoul, South Korea
- Nationality: South Korean
- Profession: Actress
- Language Skills: Korean (Native), Chinese, English
- Current Agency: BH Entertainment
- Active Years: 2012–present (14 years)
- Fandom: Ggone
Kim Go-eun (김고은; born July 2, 1991) is a South Korean actress who primarily works in film and television. She made her feature film debut in 2012 with Eungyo (A Muse), which brought her widespread recognition from both critics and the general public.
Early life
Kim Go-eun was born in Seoul. At the age of three to four, her family relocated to Beijing, China, where she lived for about ten years. During this period, she used Mandarin in her daily life while continuing to study Korean at home, which allowed her to become fluent in both languages
After returning to South Korea, she attended Kaywon High School of the Arts and later graduated from the Department of Drama at the Korea National University of Arts.
Career
Kim Go-eun began her acting career in 2012 with a leading role in the film Eungyo. For this performance, she received several Best New Actress awards at major South Korean film award ceremonies. Following her debut, she temporarily paused her activities to complete her studies at the Korea National University of Arts.
In 2014, she returned to the screen in the film Monster, portraying a character with complex psychological developments.
In 2015, she appeared in four films: Coin Locker Girl, Memories of the Sword, The Advocate: A Missing Body, and Canola. Among these, Coin Locker Girl was invited to screen at the Cannes Film Festival.
She made her television debut in 2016 with the series Cheese in the Trap, adapted from the webtoon of the same name. In the same year, she played the female lead in the tvN fantasy romance drama Guardian: The Lonely and Great God.
Between 2018 and 2019, she starred in the films Sunset in My Hometown and Tune in for Love, the latter of which was released globally on Netflix.
In 2020, she portrayed two roles in the SBS television series The King: Eternal Monarch, written by Kim Eun-sook. From 2021 to 2022, she starred in the series Yumi’s Cells, a production combining live-action and 3D animation. In late 2022, she appeared in the television drama Little Women, a modern South Korean adaptation of the novel by Louisa May Alcott.
Also in 2022, the historical musical film Hero was released, featuring her as the character Seol-hee. Production for the film was completed in 2019 but the release was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2023, she focused on filming Exhuma, which underwent production from October 2022 to March 2023, followed by promotional activities and preparation for subsequent projects.
In 2024, she appeared in the films Love in the Big City, Dog Days (as a cameo), and Exhuma. For her performance in Exhuma, she won the Best Actress award at the Baeksang Arts Awards and the Blue Dragon Film Awards.
In 2025, she played the role of Mo-eun in the Netflix series The Price of Confession alongside Jeon Do-yeon. In the series, she portrays a mysterious prisoner with the ability to read people, who offers a chilling deal to an art teacher accused of murdering her husband.
Fun facts
- Kim Go-eun adopted a dog named Wol, even though he was diagnosed with a rare brain disease.
- She’s a thrill-seeker: bungee jumping, skydiving, scuba diving — and she once admitted she usually hides it from her parents.
- She holds a certified rescue diver license and joined an ocean cleanup project while filming the reality show Sea of Hope.
- Before acting, she once dreamed of becoming a film director after repeatedly watching Chen Kaige’s Together.
- Her debut role in A Muse happened in a very unplanned way — director Jung Ji-woo kept insisting until she said yes.
- Cheese in the Trap was her first drama; she initially declined because of scheduling, but the director adjusted the production to keep her on board.
- For Sunset in My Hometown, she gained about 8kg and practiced the Jeolla dialect to fit the character.
- She used to be a fan of Lee Min-ho before working alongside him in The King: Eternal Monarch.
- In Goblin, the scene where her character suggests the name “Park Bo-gum” was an inside joke, since she had acted with Park Bo-gum before.
- Fans joked she was the “queen of product placement” in Yumi’s Cells because her character was always seen with a Kahi serum stick.
- She once took a break from Korea National University of Arts to focus on filming, then later returned to finish her degree.
- Among fans, she goes by nicknames like “Gon,” “Goni,” and even the playful moniker “King Hunnyeo.”