Park Hae-soo

Biography:

Park Hae-soo (born November 21, 1981) is a South Korean actor best known globally for playing Cho Sang-woo in the first season of Netflix’s Squid Game (2021), a role that earned him a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.

He began his acting career in theater, performing in numerous plays and musicals before transitioning to film and television. His breakthrough came with the series Prison Playbook (2017–2018), one of the highest-rated Korean cable dramas. He has since collaborated frequently with Netflix, starring in Time to Hunt (2020), Yaksha: Ruthless Operations (2022), and Narco-Saints (2022).

Born in Suwon, Gyeonggi, South Korea, Park first discovered acting through his high school theater club. He later pursued a degree in Theater and Film at Dankook University, supporting himself with part-time jobs at restaurants and concert venues. After graduating, he completed his mandatory military service, serving in the 50th Infantry Division and working as a teaching assistant at a recruit training center.

Park started as a stage actor in 2007 and remained active in theater and musicals. In 2012, director Kim Jin-min cast him in the TV drama God of War after noticing him in a musical poster, marking his screen debut. He continued to take on minor and supporting roles until gaining attention in Six Flying Dragons (2015), leading to a contract with BH Entertainment in 2016.

His major breakthrough came in 2017 when director Shin Won-ho cast him as the lead in Prison Playbook after watching him in the play Male Impulse. The series was a massive success, elevating his career. He later appeared in IU’s anthology series Persona (2019) and won Best New Actor at the Blue Dragon Film Awards for his role in By Quantum Physics: A Nightlife Venture (2019).

In 2020, he starred in the dystopian thriller Time to Hunt, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival before being released on Netflix due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That same year, he performed in the stage production Sagunja – Seasons of Change, preparing for months by taking ballet and modern dance classes.

Following his rise to international fame with Squid Game in 2021, Park gained over 800,000 Instagram followers in a single day. In 2022, he starred in three Netflix projects—Yaksha: Ruthless Operations, Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area, and Narco-Saints—each spending weeks in Netflix’s Global Top 10. That year, he also signed with the U.S. talent agency UTA and successfully hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live Korea.

In 2023, he returned to theater with Faust, earning widespread acclaim. The following year, he starred alongside Jeon Do-yeon in Simon Stone’s stage production of The Cherry Orchard, receiving positive reviews.

On a personal note, Park previously dated musical actress Lim Kang-hee from 2013 to 2016. He married in a private ceremony in Seoul on January 14, 2019, and welcomed a son on September 17, 2021.