Actor You Need to Know: Jeon Yeo-been

After My Death, a 2017 indie mystery drama film, was the first to underline Jeon Yeo-been’s talent as an actress. That project, which was rightfully a game changer in her career at the time, earned her the Best New Actress at the 56th Grand Bell Awards, Actress of the Year Award at the 22nd Busan International Film Festival and the Independent Star Award at the 2017 Seoul Independent Film Festival. She played Young-hee, a student who becomes the prime suspect after one of her classmates, a close friend, goes missing and is assumed to have committed suicide. Following the success of the film, the South Korean star quickly gained more acclaim, being recognized as a talented artist who approaches her roles with a passionate attitude.

Jeon has carved a niche for herself in the Korean entertainment industry through her prudent decisions and tenacity. I haven’t watched much of her work, but what I have seen suggests that she has resolved every dilemma on her way to attain not only stardom but, more importantly, portray strong characters. Her screen presence is massive. She has the ability to draw in viewers, which is presumably why acclaimed actress and director Moon So-ri decided to cast her in the short film The Best Director after spotting her in a trailer for the Seoul International Women’s Film Festival. In my mind, Jeon is most adept at capturing commonplace situations in their most remarkable form.

An alumna of the Broadcast Entertainment department of Dongduk Women’s University, Jeon picked up her acting skills while she was still a student, but decided to pursue it professionally much later. In 2015, she made her debut in the historical drama The Treacherous as a woman with a queen’s fate perhaps thanks to physiognomy, then as an investigative journalist probing a religious order in the thriller TV series Save Me (2017), and as a documentary director with a prolonged grief disorder in the rom-com Be Melodramatic aka Melo Is My Nature (2019). However, it was After My Death that helped the actress gain numerous accolades. From that point until 2020, Jeon has been involved in several productions, appearing in cameos, supporting roles, and important roles that have amply showcased her natural acting talent and flawless transitions between projects.

When I saw her portrayal of the terminally ill (but rebellious) Kim Jae-yeon in the gangster film Night in Paradise (2020), she instantly ascended to the top of my list of favorite K-drama actresses who totally rock it in action sequences. Jeon executed the iconic gunshot scenario so smoothly, as you will recall if you have watched the movie. Her killer instinct was ideal to bring the sequence to life because it was more vicious than just a shootout scene. She was absolutely sublime in her role.

Because of her character choices, the artist’s career has gotten considerably more impressive and demanding in recent years. The most noteworthy role is that of Hong Cha-young, a flamboyant advocate who joins the titular Vincenzo Cassano (Song Joong-ki) in his smear campaign against the colossal megacorp, Babel Group, in the mega-hit black-comedy crime drama series Vicenzo (2021). Jeon sort of resurfaced with this character, displaying a particular talent for characterizing strong women.

That same year, she appeared in the Netflix series Glitch as Hong Ji-hyo, seeking out her missing boyfriend and unearthing a disturbing mystery in the process. This year, we’ll see the actress in A Time Called You, a reimagining of the hugely popular Taiwanese drama Someday or One Day, alongside Ahn Hyo-seop, romancing through the paradoxes of space and time, with the characters veiled in a layer of meticulously entwined narrative arcs. Given that the two will appear as a couple sharing the screen for the first time, the cast and drama are attracting a lot of interest. A Time Called You is certainly one of the names on our list of the 10 most anticipated upcoming K-dramas.