Shin Ha-kyun (신하균), born on May 30, 1974, in Seoul, is a South Korean actor known for his complex and often ambiguous roles. Trained at the Seoul Institute of the Arts, he made his debut in the late 1990s and quickly gained recognition in film for his roles in several films that have since become cult classics, notably Joint Security Area, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Save the Green Planet! and Welcome to Dongmakgol.
On television, he is gradually establishing himself as an actor capable of portraying intense characters. After Good Person and Harvest Villa, it reached a major turning point with Brain in 2011, in which he played the ambitious neurosurgeon Lee Kang-hoon. His performance earned him widespread acclaim and cemented his place among television's most beloved character actors.
He continues with a wide variety of styles in All About My Romance, Mr. Back and Pied Piper, before returning to the thriller genre with Less Than Evil in 2018. In 2020, Soul Mechanic allows him to explore a more human role—that of a psychiatrist with unconventional methods.
His most memorable performance, however, remains that of Lee Dong-sik in Beyond Evil in 2021. In this dark psychological thriller, Shin Ha-kyun plays an unpredictable and tormented police officer opposite Yeo Jin-goo. The role earned him the Baeksang Arts Award for Best Actor in a Television Series.
He then moves on to the melancholic science fiction of Yonder, the satirical comedy Unicorn and the crime thriller Evilive. In 2024, he returns with The Auditors, in which he plays Shin Cha-il, a cold and incorruptible audit chief.
At the same time, Shin Ha-kyun remains very active in film, notably in The Villainess, Extreme Job, Inseparable Bros and Anchor. In 2026, he continued his television career with Fifty Professionals and will continue with the drama Pig Pen.
