Gong Yoo

Gong Yoo
Born	Gong Ji-chul (1979-07-10) July 10, 1979 Busan, South Korea[1]
Education	Kyung Hee University (Theater)
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2001-present
Agent	Management Soop
Website
Korean name
Hangul	공유
Hanja	孔劉
Revised Romanization	Gong Yu
McCune–Reischauer	Kong Yu
Birth name
Hangul	공지철
Hanja	孔地哲
Revised Romanization	Gong Ji-cheol
McCune–Reischauer	Kong Chi-ch'ŏl

Gong Ji-chul (Hangul: 공지철; born July 10, 1979), better known by his stage name Gong Yoo (Hangul: 공유), is a South Korean actor.

Career

Gong graduated with B.A. Theater degree at Kyung Hee University. He started his showbusiness career with small parts in dramas and films. He landed his first lead role in Biscuit Teacher and Star Candy in 2005. His acting talent caught the attention of casting directors and audiences and he has become an actor to watch. His role as Choi Han-Kyul in the MBC romantic comedy The 1st Shop of Coffee Prince solidified his status as a leading man. The popularity of the drama made it one of Korea's most watched dramas of 2007, and made Gong Yoo a hallyu star.

The actor finished his mandatory service in the Korean Armed Forces, which started on January 14, 2008 and ended on December 8, 2009.^[2]

Gong Yoo initiated and pursued production of a theatrical adaptation of^[3][4][5] Gong Ji-young's novel The Crucible, a gift from his senior as congratulation for his promotion during enlistment. This movie was internationally released under the title Silenced. The film sparked public outrage upon its release on September 22, 2011. This led to a reopening of the investigations into the incidents on which the novel and film are based. Public demand for legislative reform reached the National Assembly, where a revised bill to target sex crimes against minors and the disabled, dubbed the Dogani Bill after the Korean title of the film, was successfully passed in late October 2011.

In 2013, he returned to the big screen after a two-year gap in the movie The Suspect (2013 film). He played an elite North Korean spy who defects after being betrayed by his country.^[6]

On November 2013, Gong Yoo was appointed as a special representative of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Korea, in conjunction with a celebration of the 24th year since the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) was adopted. Following his appointment, he will visit countries around the world to raise awareness of the situation of children in underdeveloped countries.^[7]

On July 7, 2014, Gong was named as an ambassador for the National Tax Service, alongside actress Ha Ji-won. For the next two years, they will model for promotional posters and take part in street campaigns that encourage honest tax payment in support of the NTS.^[8]

Filmography

Television series

Films

Hosting

Awards and nominations

References

External links

• Gong Yoo at Management Soop
• Gong Yoo at HanCinema
• Gong Yoo at the Korean Movie Database
• Gong Yoo at the Internet Movie Database