Gong Hyo-jin

South Korean actress Gong Hyo-jin is best known for her leading role in the 2008 film Crush and Blush, as well as her popular television show, Sang Doo! Let's Go to School (2003), Thank You (2007), Pasta (2010), The Greatest Love (2011), Master's Sun (2013), It's Okay, That's Love (2014), The Producers (2015), Don't Dare to Dream (2016) and When the Camellia Blooms (2019). Because of her successful portrayals in her rom-com dramas, she is regarded as the queen of romantic comedies.

Gong's reputation as a serious actress was cemented by strong performances in a variety of roles, but Crush and Blush in 2008 would be her most high-profile film to date. Gong starred in the black comedy as a misanthropic antiheroine with an unattractively blushing red face, frizzy hair, dowdy clothes, and a chronic case of inferiority complex and hopeless delusion.

In Korea, she received numerous acting awards, including Best Actress trophies from the Korean Film Awards, Director's Cut Awards, and Women in Film Korea Awards. She was also nominated for Blue Dragon Film Awards and Baeksang Arts Awards, as well as the New York Asian Film Festival's Rising Star Award.