Jeon Do-yeon (전도연), born on February 11, 1973, in Seoul, is a South Korean actress considered one of the leading figures in Korean cinema. She made her debut, however, on television in the early 1990s, notably in Our Paradise, General Hospital and Star in My Heart, before making a name for himself in film with The Contact in 1997.
His career took on an international dimension thanks to Secret Sunshine by Lee Chang-dong. Her portrayal of a mother coping with grief earned her the Best Actress Award at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival—a first for a Korean actress. She went on to star in notable films such as The Housemaid, Way Back Home, The Shameless, A Man and a Woman, Birthday and Emergency Declaration.
Although film remains at the heart of her career, Jeon Do-yeon regularly returns to K-dramas. In particular, she plays the lead role in Lovers in Prague in 2005, then returned to television in 2016 with The Good Wife. She follows that up with an introspective melodrama Lost in 2021.
In 2023, she enjoyed great popularity with Crash Course in Romance, in which she plays Nam Haeng-seon, a former athlete who has become a restaurant manager and a devoted mother. That same year, she cemented her international status with the Netflix action film Kill Boksoon, in which she plays a professional assassin who divides her time between assignments and motherhood.
After Revolver In 2024, she briefly reprised her role as Gil Bok-soon in Mantis and appears in Good News in 2025. She is making a comeback, primarily in television thrillers, with The Price of Confession, opposite Kim Go-eun.
In 2026, she reunited with Lee Chang-dong for Possible Love, in which she plays Mi-ok. Her television career is also set to continue with The Great Ok Sook, scheduled for 2027, in which she will play the role of Bang Ok-sook.
