Background
Eom Hong-sik was born in Daegu and dropped out of high school to pursue acting.
Eom Hong-sik was born in Daegu and dropped out of high school to pursue acting.
He rose to fame in television series Sungkyunkwan Scandal (2010), and became best known for his leading roles in coming-of-age film Punch (2011), melodrama Secret Love Affair (2014), action blockbuster Veteran (2015) and period drama film The Throne (2015). Using the stage name Yoo Ah-in, he made his acting debut in the teen series Sharp 1 in 2003. Various roles on film and television followed, from a lost teenager in low-budget indie Boys of Tomorrow, the lonely warrior in Chil-woo the Mighty, to the energetic patissier aspirant in Antique, and a cheeky assistant in He Who Can"t Marry.
Yoo"s breakout role came in popular 2010 period drama Sungkyunkwan Scandal.
This was followed by his first big-screen leading role in the coming-of-age film Punch, a critical and box-office success in 2011. His costar, veteran actor Kim Yoon-seok predicted that "In the next 10 years, he will be one of the biggest names in Korean cinema."
But Yoo"s next project Fashion King was poorly received by audiences, particularly its controversial ending.
Yoo"s unconventional image was strengthened by his willingness to make his social, artistic and philosophical interests public, and he is also the director of a "complex creative space" called Studio Concrete in Hannam-dong, Seoul, which he created with a group of seven artists of various media. He then played the titular character in the film Tough as Iron, about a Busan pier worker who takes care of his mother afflicted with dementia and kidney disease.
Yoo and Tough as Iron costar Jung Yu-mi later collaborated again as voice actors in the animated film The Satellite Girl and Milk Cow.
In 2014, he appeared in a quirky supporting role in Lee Han"s Thread of Lies (this was Lee"s second film adaptation of a Kim Ryeo-ryeong novel after Punch). Cable melodrama Secret Love Affair followed, in which Yoo played a piano prodigy who falls for a married, much older woman. Two top-grossing films starred Yoo in 2015.
He played an amoral young millionaire who faces off with a detective in Ryoo Seung-wan"s crime thriller/comedy Veteran, and as the tragic Crown Prince Sado in Lee Joon-ik"s period drama The Throne.
Considered one of the most outspoken and politically minded Korean actors of his generation, Yoo drew media attention in late 2012 when he tweeted a strongly worded criticism against the withdrawal of Ahn Cheol-soo from the presidential race. Cast as King Sukjong in the 2013 period drama Jang Ok-jung, Living by Love, a revisionist take on infamous royal concubine Jang Hui-bin, Yoo called the role one of the biggest challenges of his career and he garnered favorable press reviews for his mature, charismatic and versatile portrayal.