KO HYUN JUNG

KOREAN STARS 

KO HYUN JUNG

Profile

Name: 고현정 / Ko Hyun Jung (Go Hyeon Jeong)

Profession: Actress, model, and singer

Birthdate: 1971-Mar-02

Height: 172cm

Weight: 54kg

Blood type: B

Family: 1 son and 1 daughter

Education: Dongkook University

Twitter: @kohyunjung_iok

Ko Hyun-jung  in Hwasun , South Jeolla ) is a South Korean actress. Like the characters she plays, Go Hyun-jung has had a life filled with drama. A Dongguk University Performing Arts major, she got her start as a runner-

up in the Miss Korea pageant in 1989, which launched her acting career. Her big break came in the 1995 SBS drama Sandglass . The drama dealt with modern Korean history from 1970 to the 1990s and was one of the highest rated dramas in Korean television history, with average ratings of 50.8 percent. People would rush home just to see a new episode, saying “it’s time to go home,” which meant they had to go home to watch Sandglass. 

In May 1995, at the peak of her career, Go married Chung Yong-jin, vice chairman and co- CEO of Shinsegae Group and grandson of Samsung founder Lee Byung-chull . The two first met in New York purely by coincidence when Chung had offered to help Go find her seats at the Winter Garden Theatre because her English was so bad.  After the most talked-about wedding in Korea at that time, Go announced her retirement from acting to focus on her new role as a chaebol's wife. They had two children together, a boy and a girl. But after eight years of marriage, a messy divorce followed in November  2003, in which she temporarily lost custody of her children.  Two years after the divorce, Shinsegae passed down a ruling stating that none of its department stores are allowed to display any Go-related material, including all her product endorsements. It is rumored that the ruling is still in effect. 

In Korea, divorce is still a big blow to actresses but Go is one of the few who've successfully overcome the stigma . She staged a comeback in the 2005 melodrama Spring Days , which she followed up with May-December romantic comedy What's Up Fox ? and police procedural H.I.T . Go regained her reputation as Korea's top actress in 2009 after playing royal concubine Lady Mishil in the hit historical drama 

Queen Seondeok .She was not the titular lead character, but her interpretation of the power-hungry main rival to the queen was impressive enough to make viewers remember the show as Mishil’s story. The drama reached ratings of over 40 percent and won her the highest award at the MBC Drama Awards and Baeksang Arts Awards.  That same year, Go surprised fans not only by appearing on a TV entertainment show (popular talk show Golden Fishery hosted by comedian Kang Ho-dong ) for the first time in 15 years, but also by addressing rumors surrounding her shrouded personal life.  Twenty-one years after making her acting debut, Go held her very first

fanmeeting on June 13, 2010 - she held a press conference beforehand, sang songs for the 500 fans present, answered questions, and prepared video clips.

Though plagued with production issues prior to airing,  Go returned to television ten months later in Daemul , which means "big shot" in Korean. In the drama, Go plays Seo Hye-rim, an anchorwoman who enters politics after the death of her war correspondent husband and becomes the nation’s first woman president. The 24-episode series revolves around an ordinary woman in extraordinary circumstances: how and why she became head of state and also the complicated schemes and plots surrounding her, her presidency, allies and enemies. Besides its star- studded cast (Go starred opposite pan-Asian actor Kwon Sang-woo ), the show’s ratings was helped by its controversial plot, which included events from Korea’s recent past such as a presidential impeachment and the sinking of a Navy warship, and it topped its time slot for 11 consecutive weeks.  

Go repeated her feat by winning the top prize at the 2010 SBS Drama Awards.  According to industry sources, Go was reportedly paid W55 million per episode, setting a new record for a Korean actress.  In 2011 she published a book on skin care titled Go Hyun-jung’s Texture . The actress has always been admired for her youthful appearance, largely attributable to her young and healthy skin which had made fans wonder about her beauty secrets. The book, arranged in the format of a documentary, contains Go’s own philosophy on beauty classified under six themes -- texture, color, light, line, formality and scent -- as well as her ideas on leading a sound and healthy lifestyle in general. The book is co-written by another writer who observed the actress's everyday life for six months, describing it in detail.  The book became a bestseller, with all 30,000 copies of the first edition selling out in just two days of release. 

Go also narrated the SBS documentary The Last Tundra - Movie Edition which offers a very rare glimpse into the life of the Nenets , the last reindeer herding nomads living in the Siberian tundra . Not content with her small screen success, Go began her late-blooming movie career by going against her image and taking pay cuts to star in non- mainstream films. She was part of the ensemble cast in arthouse films Woman on the Beach and Like You Know It All by auteur Hong Sang-soo . 

She then starred in Actresses , a semi- improvisational movie featuring six actresses each playing themselves. Director E J-yong, who was first inspired to make the film after going out for a drink with actresses Yoon Yeo-jeong and Go in 2007, said he focused on conveying the "reality" of the actresses' lives. 

At the press event for her eponymously named talk show The GO Show (which premiered on April 6, 2012), Go quipped, "I became an MC because I wanted to. I want to meet a lot of people and hear their stories. I

have always wanted to do that and SBS gave me that opportunity." Given her reputation for saying what is on her mind (one that has won the actress many fans), concerns have arisen as to how her work as show host affects

the impressive image of flawless elegance and sophistication she has gained over the years. But Go harbored little anxiety over how her public image might change, saying, “I think I can afford to put a small dent in my image and have some fun.”  GO Show is co-hosted by singer-songwriter Yoon Jong-shin, and comedians Jung Hyung-don and Kim Young-chul. 

She will headline a film for the first time in action-comedy Miss Go (international title: Miss Conspirator ), about 

a panic disorder patient who accidentally becomes involved in a cat-and-mouse chase between the police

and the country’s biggest crime ring, turning the woman's life upside down and transforming her into the queen 

of crime. 

TV Shows

Dae Mul (SBS, 2010)

Queen Seon Duk (MBC, 2009)

H.I.T (MBC, 2007)

What's Up Fox? (MBC, 2006)

Spring Day (SBS, 2005)

Sandglass (SBS, 1995)

Farewell (SBS, 1994)

My Mother's Sea (MBC, 1993)

A Love Without Fear (SBS, 1992)

Eye of Dawn (MBC, 1991)

Love on a Jujube Tree (KBS, 1990)

Movies

Miss Conspirator |  Miss Go | Miseugo Peurojaekteu  (2012)

The Day He Arrives (2011) ( cameo )

The Last Tundra - Movie Edition (2011) ( documentary narrator)

Actresses (2009)

Like You Know It All (2009)

Woman on the Beach (2006)

Talk show

The GO Show ( SBS, 2012)

Book

Go Hyun-jung's Texture (2011)

Awards

2010 SBS Drama Awards: Daesang (Grand Prize) ( Dae Mul )

2010 SBS Drama Awards: Top Ten Stars Award ( Dae Mul )

2010 46th Baeksang Arts Awards: Daesang (Grand Prize) ( Queen Seon Duk )

2009 MBC Drama Awards: Daesang (Grand Prize) ( Queen Seon Duk )

1995 31st Baeksang Arts Awards: Nominated for Best TV Actress Award ( Sandglass )

1994 30th Baeksang Arts Awards: Nominated for Best Actress Award ("My Mother's Sea")

1992 28th Baeksang Arts Awards: Best New Actress Award ("Love On A Jujube Tree")

1989 Miss Korea: First Runner-Up