O Yeong-su

Biography:

O Yeong-su, originally named O Se-kang, was born on October 19, 1944, and is a South Korean actor. He began his acting career in theater in 1967 and has performed in more than 200 plays. His experience in Buddhist-themed productions led to him frequently portraying monks in films and television.

In 2021, he gained international fame for his role as Oh Il-nam in the Netflix survival drama Squid Game. This performance earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Miniseries, or Television Film, along with a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.

Born in Kaepung County, which was under Japanese rule at the time and is now part of North Korea, O and his family relocated to Paju after the division of Korea. During the Korean War, his father was killed, and his brother was taken by North Korean forces.

O began his acting journey in 1963 with a theater group called “The Square” and later joined the National Theater Company of Korea, where he was a member from 1987 to 2010. Over the years, he appeared in numerous stage productions, including A Confession for a Black Prostitute, A Streetcar Named Desire, and The Merchant of Venice. In his thirties, he played Faust, later admitting he may have been too young for the role. In his fifties, he portrayed Richard III but felt he was too old for the character. In his sixties, he expressed a desire to take on the role of Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman. In 2014, he played Prospero in a National Theater of Korea production of The Tempest.

Throughout his career, O took on significant roles in various plays, such as Prince Yeonsangun, The Problematic Figure, and Fathers and Sons in 2015. In 2017, he starred as King Lear in a production by the Daegu Metropolitan Theater Company, having previously performed the role at the Daejeon Museum of Art in 2010. In 2021, it was announced that he would play Sigmund Freud in Freud’s Last Session, which premiered in early 2022.

Outside of theater, O narrated an episode of Documentary Three Days in 2021 and threw the first pitch at that year’s Korean Series. In July 2022, he was named Ambassador for Korean Performance Tourism.

In November 2022, prosecutors indicted O on charges of sexual misconduct related to a 2017 incident. He was accused of making inappropriate advances, including unwanted physical contact and lewd remarks. Although the allegations surfaced in 2017, he was not officially charged until 2022. During his trial in early 2024, prosecutors requested a one-year prison sentence. In March 2024, he was found guilty and received an eight-month suspended prison sentence, along with a requirement to complete 40 hours of sexual violence education.