Kim So-yeon made her acting debut on Korean television at the age of 14 in the SBS drama ‘Dinosaur Teacher’ in 1994, for which she also won the ‘Best Young Actress Award’ at the ‘SBS Drama Awards’. She subsequently appeared in the KBS2 drama series ‘Daughters of a Rich Family’ in 1994-95. In 1995, she appeared in the SBS sitcom ‘LA Arirang’ and in two episodes of the KBS2 ‘Drama Game’: ‘Min-woo vs. Min-woo’ and ‘Their Summer’. The following year, she appeared in several popular television shows such as ‘You Can't Stop Mom’, ‘City Men and Women’, ‘Reporting for Duty’, ‘Open Your Heart’ and ‘Seven Spoons’. She continued to appear in more television series in 1997, including ‘Because of Love’, ‘Yesterday’, the KBS Drama Special ‘Christmas in May’, and ‘Friday Night Theater ‘On Her First Night’’. She also made her film debut that year in the comedy movie ‘Change’ (‘Che-inji’). In 1998, she bagged the main roles in the SBS daily sitcom ‘Soonpoong Clinic’ and the SBS miniseries ‘Winners’, apart from playing a supporting role in the SBS weekend drama ‘I Love You, I Love You’. Next year, she had a main role in the KBS one-act drama ‘Pickpocket by Name’ and supporting roles in the KBS2 drama series ‘We Saw a Little Lost Bird’ and ‘Ad Madness’.
Kim So-yeon’s big break came in 2000 when she was cast in the role of manipulative and villainous anchorwoman Heo Young-mi in the MBC miniseries ‘All About Eve’. While the role earned her recognition locally and even internationally, her acting credits reduced in the following years as she had to reject several similar negative roles in order to avoid being typecast. Nevertheless, she appeared in main roles in several MBC productions during the early 2000s, including ‘Mom and Sister’, ‘Sunlight Upon Me’, and ‘Trio’, as well as the SBS drama ‘2004 Human Market’. However, her attempt to break into the Chinese market with the television dramas ‘Just Like a Beautiful Flying Butterfly’ (2004) and ‘Anhui Merchants’ (2007), and the Hong Kong wuxia film ‘Seven Swords’, was unsuccessful. Moreover, her 2005 South Korean drama ‘Autumn Shower’ (‘Kaeulsonagi’) was also short-lived. Fortunately, she made a comeback in the main role of Yoon Joo-hee in the 2008 drama series ‘Gourmet’ (‘Shik-gaek’). During this period, she also acted in the short film ‘The Pictures’ (2007).
The next big role for Kim So-yeon was in the 2009 ensemble cast South Korean spy-thriller series ‘Iris’ (‘Ailiseu’), in which her portrayal of North Korean escort Kim Sun-hwa earned her the ‘Baeksang Arts Awards’ in the ‘Best Actress – Television’ category and the ‘Popularity Award’ at the ‘KBS Drama Awards’. In 2010, she reprised the role in the film version of the series, ‘Iris the Movie’, and in a couple episodes of the spin-off spy-drama series ‘Athena: Goddess of War’ (‘Athena: Jeonjaeng-ui Yeoshin’), and would later make another cameo appearance in the follow-up series ‘Iris II’ in 2013. Also in 2010, she played the main roles in two more successful romantic drama series, ‘Prosecutor Princess’ (‘Geomsa peurinseseu’) and ‘Dr. Champ’ (‘Dokteo Chaempeu’). In 2012, she starred as the cosmopolitan barista Tanya in the drama film ‘Gabi’ and portrayed Hae-in in the historical romance drama series ‘The Great Seer’. In the following years, she had more main roles like Park Jae-kyung in the crime drama series ‘Two Weeks’ (2013), Shin Joo-yeon in the popular romantic comedy series ‘I Need Romance 3’ (2014) and Kim Soon-jung in the romantic comedy-drama series ‘Falling for Innocence’ (‘Sunjeonge Banhada’, 2015). In 2015, she also had a cameo appearance in the romantic comedy film ‘Love Forecast’ and a guest role in the drama series ‘High-End Crush’.
In 2016, Kim So-yeon played the role of bereaving mother Bong Hae-ryung in MBC's weekend drama miniseries ‘Happy Home’, which earned her top accolades at the ‘APAN Star Awards’, the ‘Korea Drama Awards’, and the ‘MBC Drama Awards’. Following more guest appearances in series such as ‘One More Happy Ending’ (2016), ‘20th Century Boy and Girl’ (2017) and ‘Borg Mom’ (2017), she bagged the main role of mysterious “surrogate mother” Kim Lisa in the special SBS weekend drama ‘Secret Mother’ (‘Shikeurit Madeo’) in 2018. It was followed by another main role, Kang Mi-ri, in the 2019 romantic drama series ‘Mother of Mine’ (‘Sesangeseo Jeil Yebbeun Nae Ddal’). Two decades after ‘All About Eve’, she portrayed another iconic villain, famous soprano and musical school director Cheon Seo-jin, in three seasons of the crime mystery series ‘The Penthouse: War in Life’ (‘Penteuhauseu’, 2020-21), which earned her the ‘Award for Best Actress – Television’ at the 57th ‘Baeksang Arts Awards’ and the ‘Grand Prize (Daesang)’ at 2021 ‘SBS Drama Awards’. She recently appeared in the TVING short film ‘It's Alright’ (2022) and is slated to appear in the 2023 drama series ‘Tale of the Nine Tailed 1938’.
