Ryu Soo-young is a prominent South Korean film and television actor best known for his performances in the hit TV shows ‘Ojakgyo Family’ and ‘My Princess.’ Ryu began his showbiz career in 1998, while still a college student, with an appearance on a cookery show. Soon after, he went off the main road and joined the cast of ‘Summertime,’ a highly controversial film. However, fate would not allow him to play the roles he desired, and he was relegated to supporting roles in his early acting career. He had minor roles in hit TV dramas including ‘Story of a Bright Girl and ‘Save the Last Dance for Me,’ but he desired a bigger role. In 2005, he appeared in the series ’18 vs. 29′, which ended his quest for a leading role. Ryu went on to star in a number of popular and unsuccessful TV programs following that.
Childhood and Adolescence
Ryu Soo-young was born to a middle-class family in Gyeonggi, South Korea, on September 5, 1979. He began acting in plays at a young age and also played basketball and football in high school.
Although he developed a passion for performing at a young age, he initially treated it as a pastime. He had a sneaking suspicion that his family would not support him in taking such a dangerous path. He caught the acting bug in high school, but he went to Myongji University to study business administration, as his parents had requested.
He began acting throughout his undergraduate years, and it soon grew on him to the point that it was all he wanted to do with his life. Following that, he began auditioning for roles, and in 1998, at the age of 19, he landed his first television role in the form of a variety program.
The Career of Ryu
Ryu began his career in a variety of programs and went on to act in a number of tiny roles in fiction shows such as ‘Gibb’s Family’ and ‘Love and Farewell in the late 1990s. All those minor shows weren’t doing him any favors in terms of his profession, but they did pay his rent and get him additional auditions.
He starred in shows including ‘Good Friends 2’, ‘Navy,’ and ‘The Open Drama Man and Woman’ in the early 2000s. His appearance in the 2001 series ‘Successful Story of a Bright Girl was one of his first major roles, and it catapulted him to popularity. That same year, he won his first acting award, ‘The New Star Award,’ at the SBS Drama Awards.
Meanwhile, he played a prominent role in the 2001 film ‘Summertime.’ The picture, which sparked outrage owing to its overt depiction of sex and sensuality, remained in the spotlight for weeks before its release. This also provided Ryu with some much-needed exposure in the industry.
In 2003, he participated in some lesser-known programs such as ‘Merry Go Round’ and ‘Jan Gil San,’ and the following year, he landed another role that would propel him to the forefront of his generation’s young main performers.
He portrayed Jung Tae-min in the romantic drama series ‘Save the Last Dance for Me,’ in which a couple suffering from amnesia tries to keep their romance alive despite the illness’s negative impacts on their life. Ryu won the ‘Best Supporting Actor award at the SBS Drama Awards for his performance.
He starred in the drama ’18 Vs 29′ in 2005, which received critical acclaim for its intriguing subject matter. The series followed the life of a successful movie star’s wife, who is engaged in an accident and, in his perception, reverts to being 18 years old. Following that, Ryu starred in the award-winning series Rebirth-Next,’ for which he received the Excellence Award at the MBC Drama Awards that year.
In 2006, Ryu won a hat-trick of honors for his following drama, ‘Seoul 1945,’ which is set just after Korea was liberated from Japanese domination. In the film, Ryu plays the starring character of a man from a poor family who is trying to keep his life together during the country’s political instability. The series was a critical and financial success, earning Ryu the KBS Drama Awards’ Top Excellence Award, as well as nominations for a slew of other awards.
In 2007, he starred in the drama miniseries Bad Couple,’ and in 2008, he played a lawyer in the series Lawyers of the Great Republic of Korea.’
Ryu went out for his necessary military training in 2008 and joined the Seoul Police Agency, where he served from 2008 to 2010. This served as a welcome diversion from his rigorous acting schedule.
Following his discharge from the military in 2011, he went on to receive critical acclaim for his supporting role in the comedy-drama series ‘My Princess,’ in which he played an ordinary college girl who discovers she is descended from a royal Korean ancient family and begins to imagine herself as a princess in real life.
In the same year, he starred in the comic family drama series ‘Ojakgyo Family,’ for which he shared the KBS Drama Awards’ ‘Best Couple Award’ with ‘Choi Jung-Yoon,’ and was nominated for a few other awards.
After starring in another highly acclaimed drama, ‘The Sons,’ Ryu continued his award-winning trend with 2013’s ‘Real Men,’ for which he received the MBC Entertainment Awards’ Best Star Award for a series about eight celebrities serving in the army. The series was inspired by the idea of compulsory military training for all South Korean men.
Ryu gave what is widely regarded as his most powerful performance of his whole career in 2014. Between 1970 to 1990, he starred in the period drama ‘Endless Love,’ which portrayed a love triangle set against the backdrop of Korea’s political and economic turmoil.
‘The Eccentric Daughter in Law’ and ‘My Father is Strange’ are two of his most recent series.
Ryu’s Personal Experiences
He married Park Ha-sun on January 22, 2017, in a very private wedding attended by just close friends and family members, after dating her for quite some time. The duo confirmed that they had been dating since 2014. The couple had their first child, a baby girl, on August 23.
Estimated Net worth
Ryu Soo-young has a net worth of $20 million and is a South Korean actor. Ryu Soo-young was born in September 1979 in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. In 1998, he made his debut appearance on a cookery show. From 2008 until 2010, Ryu was a member of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency.