With an acting career spanning over a decade, Cha Eun-woo is undoubtedly one of the hottest Korean actors of our times. The singer and actor under Fantagio and a member of the popular K-pop boy group Astro had his first acting moments on the big screen—with the film My Brilliant Life (2014)—that preceded starring roles in a series of K-dramas year after year.
Critics have praised his expressive versatility, while he has dedicated most of his career to playing romantic heroes. Cha has won several awards, including Best New Actor and Hallyu Star Award at the 11th Korea Drama Awards for My ID Is Gangnam Beauty (2018), Excellence Award, Actor in a Wednesday-Thursday Drama at the MBC Drama Awards for Rookie Historian Goo Hae-ryung (2019), Emotive Award—Actor at Asia Artist Awards in 2021 for True Beauty (2020-2021), Excellence Award, Actor in a Miniseries at the APAN Star Awards, and Popularity Star Award at the Blue Dragon Series Awards in 2023 for Island (2022-2023), and Best Actor (Half Year) at the Blue Dragon Awards for Wonderful World (2024).
In his acting career, Cha Eun-woo has had his share of hits and misses, but his popularity has always been on the rise, cementing his image as a Hallyu sensation. This time he makes his K-drama comeback with The Wonder Fools, as an enigmatic civil worker who probes a missing people case. And while we wait for him in this new superhero adventure series, let’s look back at five of his best K-dramas thus far.
My ID Is Gangnam Beauty (2018)
My ID Is Gangnam Beauty takes on rigid Korean beauty standards, arguing that real beauty lies in self-acceptance. Kang Mi-rae (played by Im Soo-hyang), the protagonist, resorts to cosmetic surgery to save herself from the bullying she experienced growing up. However, her choice backfires when she’s called Gangnammin (Gangnam beauty in English), a Korean term criticizing those who get multiple cosmetic procedures.
The story is a unique take on anxiety and depression. It’s also a heartfelt romance between Kang Mi-rae and her classmate Do Kyung-seok (played by Cha Eun-woo), who’s also carrying emotional wounds from an unhappy family life. Despite being the attractive college heartthrob, he’s indifferent to physical appearance. Kyung-seok seems reclusive and arrogant, yet deep down, he’s a loving man seeking happiness.
Cha Eun-woo brings a Byronic charm to the character of Kyung-suk—an air of gloom, snobbery, and vanity adding to his magnetism that Mi-rae fails to avoid irrespective of her initial reservations about him. With time they grow closer, and Mi-rae and Kyung-seok begin to heal each other while navigating the nuances of their circumstances and relationships.
Rookie Historian Goo Hae-ryung (2019)
This period drama stars Shin Se-kyung in the titular role and Cha Eun-woo as a prince who is secretly a romance novelist. The plotline explores Goo Hae-ryung’s grit and determination in challenging the status quo at a time when women were looked down upon and struggled for a sense of self in society. Hae-ryung dares to defy established norms, prioritizing the pursuit of knowledge to empower herself and women in need. In the process, she becomes one of Joseon’s female royal court historians, recognized for her wisdom, resilience, and independence.
Cha Eun-woo’s Yi Rim (Prince Dowon) is a man of perfect profile—seemingly enjoying all the attention, especially from women—but it’s just a façade. His life instead is plagued with loneliness and a vacuum. He happens to be an heir to the kingdom but is oblivious to his ancestry. When Yi Rim meets Hae-ryung, a clash of opinions sparks their initial connection, which only deepens as the plot progresses.
The actor inhabits Yi Rim’s subtleties: his isolation, his vulnerabilities, how emotional he is, and his growing feelings for Hae-ryung, culminating in a tumultuous love story that unfolds amid the Joseon dynasty’s power plays and political machinations.
True Beauty (2020-2021)
True Beauty in specific ways is akin to My ID Is Gangnam Beauty. Lim Ju-kyung (Mun Ka-young) is pushed to learn makeup tricks to camouflage her real face—often seen as unattractive. A makeover instantly crowns her the school goddess, but with it comes the growing fear of her true self being exposed. Lee Su-ho (Cha Eun-woo), the campus dreamboat, is cold and curt but can’t help warming up to her. He gets increasingly invested in Ju-kyung, eventually confessing his love.
Cha Eun-woo brings to life Su-ho’s sense of remoteness—quiet, withdrawn, and very serious—stemming from a broken family and a rocky past. Ju-kyung helps him deal with the grief that has weighed on him for years, just as he helps her break free from her inferiority complex.
Island (2022-2023)
Transpiring on Jeju Island, this mix of fantasy, action, horror, and exorcism has Van (Kim Nam-gil), a half-human and half-monster; Won Mi-ho (Lee Da-hee), a Chaebol heiress exiled to the island; and Priest Yohan (Cha Eun-woo) joining forces to take down evil forces.
Cha Eun-woo channels an enigmatic priest in Yohan, dedicated to redeeming humanity. He’s in Jeju for Mi-ho, a connection between the mystery and horror lurking on the island. While adept in performing exorcism, he’s dashing and witty, which only adds to his appeal.
Wonderful World (2024)
One of his most intense performances to date, Kwon Seon-yul, illustrates Cha Eun-woo’s growing range as an actor. Wonderful World, one of our 10 best K-dramas of 2024, brings famous psychology professor Eun Soo-hyeon (Kim Nam-joo) face to face with an intriguing, elusive Seon-yul intertwined by crime, deceit, misunderstandings, misery, loss, and revenge.
Wonderful World is a gripping revenge story that also addresses repentance and reconciliation at the end of twists, intricacies, and confessions. Cha Eun-woo shines as Seon-yul—his expression of various emotions is well calibrated, his pain is apparent, as is his thirst for vengeance, and his looks, the perfect cover masking his motives, all add to Seon-yul’s impact in the drama.