Shin Min-a before the fame: how the K-drama star went from acting in K-pop music videos to modelling alongside Crash Landing On You star Hyun Bin

Dec 9 , 2020

K-drama star, movie queen and model Shin Min-a. Photo: @illusomina/Instagram

Besides Shin bagging up to US$25,000 an episode for roles in series like My Girlfriend is a Gumiho and Oh My Venus, the model-turned-actress still appears in magazine shoots for brands from Calvin Klein to LG

News came earlier this year that production of Here, a highly anticipated K-drama, had to be pushed back due to the pandemic. That left fans of its star Shin Min-a with only the thriller Diva, a film which premiered in September, to savour in 2020. The movie centres on a swimmer named Lee Young (played by Shin), the “diva of the diving world” who is involved in a car accident. She loses her memory, and her best friend, Soo Jin (Lee Yoo-young) mysteriously disappears.

After debuting in the 2001 movie Volcano High, and taking a supporting role the same year in the series Beautiful Days alongside Lee Byung-hun, Shin Min-a went on to make a name for herself on the small and large screen. She impressed viewers with her versatility, starring in dramas My Girlfriend is a Gumiho, Arang and the Magistrate, Oh My Venus and Tomorrow, With You.

But before she made it as a successful actress and could command US$25,000 per episode of a drama series, how did Shin get her start? We backtrack to the 36-year-old’s early years before the fame.

She started out aged only 14

In 1998, at the age of just 14, Shin Min-a graced the cover of Kiki magazine. Three years later, she made her debut as an actress. However, she admitted later that she regrets such an early start.

“I didn’t have a school life like everyone else because I started working at a young age. That’s what I regret,” she said in an episode of TVN’s You Quiz on the Block.