Kim Hee-sun (born June 11, 1977) is a South Korean actress. She rose to fame in the 1990s with leading roles in television series such as Men of the Bath House (1995), Propose (1997), Wedding Dress (1997), Forever Yours (1998), Mister Q (1998), Sunflower (1998), and Tomato (1999). Kim also starred in the martial arts films Bichunmoo (2000) and The Myth (2005), historical media drama Faith (2012), teen drama Angry Mom (2015), mystery drama The Lady in Dignity (2017), and fantasy drama Tomorrow (2022). Career Kim Hee-sun won the Fair Face Beauty Contest in 1992 when she was a middle school student, and began modeling in teen magazines. In 1993, Kim, then a high school sophomore, appeared in a commercial for Lotte Samkang's crab chips, which led to her acting debut in Dinosaur Teacher; and an MC gig for music show Live TV Music 20 that same year. She enjoyed peak popularity in the mid-to-late 1990s, starring in one hit Korean drama after another. These include Men of the Bath House (1995) written by Kim Soo-hyun, Propose (1997), Wedding Dress (1997) with Lee Seung-yeon, Forever Yours (1998) with Ryu Si-won, Mister Q (1998) with Kim Min-jong and Song Yun-ah, Sunflower (1998) with Ahn Jae-wook, and Tomato (1999) with Kim Suk-hoon. Kim won the top prize at the 1998 SBS Drama Awards for Mister Q, making her, at the time, the youngest ever Grand Prize (Daesang) winner, at 21 years old. During this period, she also appeared in numerous advertisements and rose to fame both at home and abroad as one of Korea's most beautiful and trend-setting actresses. Unlike her success in television, the big screen proved to be a bigger challenge for Kim's career. She made her film debut in 1997's Repechage opposite Jang Dong-gun, and the film's director Lee Kwang-hoon subsequently put her in his next film Ghost in Love (1999). In her most high-profile role to date, Kim played the daughter of a Mongolian general in the big-budget martial arts fantasy Bichunmoo, shot in China and released in the summer of 2000. Although criticized for her acting in the film, it gave her more local and international exposure than any of her other films. Along with her popular TV dramas, it cemented her position as a Korean Wave star in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and throughout Southeast Asia. In late 2001, Kim took on a completely different