Park Bo-young

Park Bo-young (Korean: 박보영; born February 12, 1990) is a South Korean actress. She is best known for her leading roles in the films Scandal Makers (2008), which garnered her multiple best new actress awards, A Werewolf Boy (2012) and On Your Wedding Day (2018), as well as the television series Oh My Ghost (2015), Strong Girl Bong-soon (2017), Daily Dose of Sunshine (2023), and Our Unwritten Seoul (2025).

Park was born in Jeungpyeong County, North Chungcheong Province, South Korea. She is the second of three daughters. Her father served in the Special Forces Brigade for 34 years. She graduated from Jeungpyeong Elementary School, Jeungpyeong Girls' Middle School, Daeseong Girls' Commercial High School and Dankook University's Department of Performing arts with a major in theater and film.

Before her official acting debut in 2006, while in middle school, Park appeared in the short film Equal in 2005. The clip won the Challenging Reality Award (현실도전상) at the seventh Seoul International Youth Film Festival (SIYFF 2005). She first appeared on television with a public commercial for Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power while in high school.

Park made her official acting debut in the 2006 high school television series Secret Campus alongside fellow newcomer Lee Min-ho. Among the notable projects during the early stage in her career are the historical epic The King and I and Peabody Award-winning teen drama Jungle Fish with Kim Soo-hyun, based on a true story that depicts the pressures placed on students to achieve and gain admission to prestigious colleges and universities.

Park rose to fame after starring opposite Cha Tae-hyun in comedy Scandal Makers, which drew 8.3 million viewers to become the number one top grosser of 2008 and one of Korean cinema's biggest hits. Described by Variety as "excellent" in her role as a spunky teenage mom, Park's much-praised performance swept Best New Actress awards in 2009. She was also dubbed as "Nation's Little Sister" because of its success. She then starred in a short film directed by Lee Hyun-seung, human rights-themed omnibus If You Were Me 4 in 2009.

However, in 2010 she became involved in a series of legal disputes with her then-management agency and a film production company, causing the actress to be tied up in lawsuits and unable to work for the next few years.

After she was designated the promotional ambassador (called "PiFan Lady") for the 2011 Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival, Park finally ended her four-year absence from the limelight by headlining the 2012 horror thriller Don't Click. Later that year, she starred alongside Song Joong-ki in fantasy romance film A Werewolf Boy, which surpassed 7 million admissions to become one of the most successful Korean melodramas of all time. The song her character sings in the film, "My Prince", was released as a digital single and included in the movie soundtrack.

In 2013, Park joined the cast of Law of the Jungle, a reality-documentary program featuring comedian Kim Byung-man and several celebrities as they explore and survive the New Zealand wilderness.