Song Hye-kyo

Song Hye-kyo (born November 22, 1981) is a South Korean actress. She gained popularity through her leading roles in television dramas Autumn in My Heart (2000), All In (2003), Full House (2004), That Winter, the Wind Blows (2013) and Descendants of the Sun (2016) which achieved pan-Asia success. She has also starred in films Hwang Jin Yi (2007), The Grandmaster (2013), My Brilliant Life (2014) and The Queens (2015).

The success of Song's television dramas internationally established her as a top Hallyu star. In 2017, she ranked 7th in Forbes magazine's Korea Power Celebrity list.

When Song Hye-kyo was born, she was sick and her parents and doctors thought that she would not survive. Upon her recovery, Song's parents registered her birth on February 26, 1982 (instead of her actual birthdate, November 22, 1981).

Song's parents divorced when she was a young girl, and she was raised by her mother. They moved from her birthplace in Daegu to the Gangnam District in Seoul, where she trained as a figure skater in elementary school, but quit when she was in the eighth grade.Though Song considered herself shy and introverted, she was described by her high school teacher as having a "cheerful character, she mixed well with her friends and was always in a bright mood." Song Hye-kyo attended college at Sejong University, where she majored in Film Arts.

In 1996, the 14-year-old Song, then a third-year junior high school student, won first place in the SunKyung Smart Model Contest, and she made her entertainment debut as a model for the school uniform company. This led to her being cast in a small role in her first television drama, First Love. She would continue to appear in a string of various dramas and sitcoms, notably Soonpoong Clinic. But it wasn't until the KBS drama Autumn in My Heart in 2000 with Song Seung-heon and Won Bin that she rose to fame in Korea and throughout Asia. The romantic melodrama series was a ratings success, pioneering a trend in Korean melodramatic series and launching a fever that is commonly referred to as the "Korean Wave" and leading to Song becoming a Hallyu star.