Kim Go-eun: The Complete Filmography of the Goblin Star

Few actresses have shaped the modern era of Korean entertainment quite like Kim Go-eun (김고은). To millions of international fans, she will always be Ji Eun-tak, the warm-hearted “Goblin's bride” from the 2016 mega-hit drama Guardian: The Lonely and Great God (better known worldwide as Goblin). Yet that career-defining role is only one chapter in a remarkable filmography that spans intense thrillers, sweeping fantasy romances, prestige literary adaptations, and record-breaking occult horror.

Born on July 2, 1991, in Seoul and raised partly in Beijing, Kim Go-eun trained at the prestigious Korea National University of Arts before exploding onto the scene with a fearless debut. This guide walks through her complete catalogue of Korean dramas and films in reverse chronological order — starting with her newest 2026 projects and tracing back to where it all began in 2012 — making it the definitive reference for anyone searching for the full Kim Go-eun filmography.

Kim Go-eun at a Glance

• Korean name: 김고은 (Kim Go-eun)

• Born: Seoul, South Korea

• Agency: BH Entertainment

• Debut: A Muse (Eungyo), 2012

• Signature works: Goblin, Cheese in the Trap, The King: Eternal Monarch, Yumi's Cells, Little Women, Exhuma

• Major honours: Baeksang Best Actress (Film) and Blue Dragon Best Actress for Exhuma (2024)

Kim Go-eun's Filmography in Reverse Chronological Order

2026 — Yumi's Cells 3

Kim Go-eun's most recent project sees her return to one of her most beloved characters. In Yumi's Cells 3, the third season of the genre-blending live-action and animation hybrid series, she once again plays Kim Yumi, the relatable office worker whose emotions are narrated by a cast of adorable animated “cells.” Confirmed in 2025 for a 2026 release, the new season continues the heartfelt, introspective storytelling that made the franchise a fan favourite across Asia.

2025 — A Landmark Year on Netflix

In 2025, Kim Go-eun headlined two very different Netflix original series, showcasing the range that has become her trademark. The first, You and Everything Else (은중과 상연), released on September 12, 2025, is a coming-of-age romance drama that reunited her with actress Park Ji-hyun. Kim plays Ryu Eun-jung, charting a complicated decades-long friendship that stretches from the characters' teenage years into their forties. The role earned her a Best Actress (Television) nomination at the 2026 Baeksang Arts Awards.

Her second 2025 series, The Price of Confession, premiered on December 5, 2025. In this mystery thriller, Kim takes on the enigmatic role of Mo-eun — a prisoner nicknamed “the Witch” — opposite veteran star Jeon Do-yeon, an actress Kim has long cited as a role model. Her work in the series won Best Acting in OTT at the Chunsa Film Art Awards.

2024 — The Year of Exhuma

2024 was a watershed year. Kim Go-eun led director Jang Jae-hyun's occult thriller Exhuma (파묘) as Hwa-rim, a young shaman, alongside acting legends Choi Min-sik and Yoo Hae-jin and rising star Lee Do-hyun. The film premiered at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival and became a domestic phenomenon, reaching five million admissions in a record-breaking ten days and ultimately grossing roughly $95 million with more than 11 million tickets sold — the highest-grossing Korean film of the year. Her hypnotic performance of a shamanic ritual was so authentic that the production's real-life shaman advisors marvelled at it. The role earned Kim the Best Actress prize at both the 60th Baeksang Arts Awards and the 45th Blue Dragon Film Awards, cementing her status as one of Korea's premier film actresses.

Later that October, she starred as the free-spirited Jae-hee in Love in the Big City, adapted from Sang Young Park's bestselling novel. The film follows the tender friendship between a young woman and her closeted gay roommate navigating love in modern Seoul; it won Kim Best Actress at the Buil Film Awards. Taken together, Exhuma and Love in the Big City made 2024 the year Kim Go-eun fully arrived as a leading film star, with critics and industry insiders alike declaring the start of a “Kim Go-eun era.”

2022 — Little Women and Hero

In 2022, Kim anchored the acclaimed drama Little Women, a loose, modern reimagining of Louisa May Alcott's novel. As Oh In-ju, the eldest of three sisters who become entangled with a powerful family, she earned widespread praise; the series holds a perfect critics' rating on Rotten Tomatoes. That same year she appeared in Korea's first major musical film, Hero, playing Seol-hee, a former court lady turned undercover independence fighter, in the story of patriot An Jung-geun.

2021 — Yumi's Cells

The original Yumi's Cells launched in 2021 (continuing into 2022 across two seasons), with Kim Go-eun in the title role of Kim Yumi. The innovative blend of live action and animation was a critical success, with NME naming it among the ten best Korean dramas of 2021 and reviewers singling out Kim's nuanced, chameleon-like central performance.

2020 — The King: Eternal Monarch and Untact

In 2020, Kim reunited with star screenwriter Kim Eun-sook for the big-budget fantasy drama The King: Eternal Monarch, playing dual roles as detective Jung Tae-eul and her parallel-world counterpart Luna, opposite Lee Min-ho. The series set premiere ratings records for SBS. She also led director Kim Jee-woon's short film Untact as Soo-jin.

2018 — Sunset in My Hometown and Tune in for Love

In 2018, Kim took on a supporting role as the spirited country girl Sun-mi in Lee Joon-ik's Sunset in My Hometown, even gaining weight and learning a regional dialect for authenticity. She followed it with the period romance Tune in for Love as Kim Mi-soo, a story unfolding across years against the backdrop of a beloved radio program.

2016–2017 — Television Stardom: Cheese in the Trap and Goblin

2016 was the year Kim Go-eun conquered television. She made her small-screen debut as Hong Seol in Cheese in the Trap, based on the hit webtoon, winning the Baeksang Arts Award for Best New Actress (Television). Later that year she was cast as Ji Eun-tak opposite Gong Yoo in Kim Eun-sook's fantasy romance Guardian: The Lonely and Great God — the drama known globally as Goblin. A pan-Asian sensation, it became the first Korean cable drama to surpass 20% in ratings and remains one of the most cherched K-dramas ever made. On the film side, 2016 also brought the family drama Canola, in which she played Hye-ji opposite veteran Youn Yuh-jung.

2026 — The Goblin 10th Anniversary Reunion

A decade after the drama first aired, the four lead actors of Goblin — Gong Yoo, Lee Dong-wook, Kim Go-eun, and Yoo In-na — reunited to mark the show's 10th anniversary. The gathering takes the form of a special program titled Brilliant Because We're Together — The Goblin 10th Anniversary Trip, produced as a tvN 20th-anniversary edition. In it, the cast travels to Gangneung, the coastal city where many of the drama's most memorable scenes were filmed, to revisit their shared memories.

The cast returned to the Jumunjin breakwater in Gangneung — the iconic spot where Ji Eun-tak (Kim Go-eun) first summoned the goblin Kim Shin (Gong Yoo). Released footage revived the show's signature imagery, from the hit OST “Beautiful” to the red scarf and buckwheat flowers, while the “Goblin couple” (Gong Yoo and Kim Go-eun) and the “Grim Reaper couple” (Lee Dong-wook and Yoo In-na) showed that their chemistry remained intact.

The reunion drew heartfelt reflections from the cast. Gong Yoo described the drama as “the most brilliant winter of my life,” while Kim Go-eun shared that the team's strong sense of teamwork was what carried them through, saying they were able to endure because they had one another. The special was scheduled to premiere on July 4, 2026, at 9:10 p.m. As a reminder of the drama's original impact, the 2016 series was the first Korean cable drama to break 20% in ratings and went on to sweep major honours including the Baeksang Arts Awards, the Cable TV Broadcasting Awards, and the Korea Drama Awards.

2014–2015 — Building a Film Career

After a deliberate break to finish her degree, Kim returned in 2014 with the thriller Monster, playing Bok-soon, a developmentally disabled woman driven to revenge after her sister's murder. In 2015 she co-starred with Kim Hye-soo in the female-driven crime thriller Coin Locker Girl as Il-young, a role that brought her to the Cannes Film Festival for the first time. The same year she appeared in the martial-arts period epic Memories of the Sword alongside her idol Jeon Do-yeon, and in the courtroom drama The Advocate: A Missing Body as prosecutor Jin Sun-mi.

2012 — A Fearless Debut

Kim Go-eun's career began with the short film Yeong-a (2012), but it was her feature debut the same year in Jung Ji-woo's A Muse (Eungyo) that announced a major talent. Cast from roughly 300 hopefuls, she played Eun-gyo, a teenage girl who becomes the object of an aging poet's desire — a daring role that swept the Best New Actress categories at virtually every major Korean awards ceremony, including the Blue Dragon Film Awards, Grand Bell Awards, and Buil Film Awards.

Kim Go-eun Dramas

Kim Go-eun Films

The Rise of a Star: Why Kim Go-eun Became a Household Name

Kim Go-eun's stardom was not the product of a single overnight hit but of a steady, deliberate climb across a decade of fearless choices. Her 2012 debut in A Muse was so striking that it earned her a near-sweep of Best New Actress trophies, yet rather than chase instant fame she stepped back to finish her university degree — an early sign of the long-game mindset that would define her career. When she returned, she deliberately alternated between heavy dramatic films like Monster and Coin Locker Girl and the kind of crowd-pleasing television that would make her a true mainstream icon.

That mainstream breakthrough arrived in 2016. Within a single year she conquered Korean television twice: first as the grounded, relatable Hong Seol in Cheese in the Trap, then as Ji Eun-tak in Guardian: The Lonely and Great God — the drama the world simply calls Goblin. Goblin was a cultural earthquake. It became the first Korean cable drama to break the 20% ratings barrier, turned its soundtrack into chart-toppers, and made Kim Go-eun a star recognised from Seoul to Southeast Asia and beyond. Her chemistry with Gong Yoo, and the bittersweet warmth she brought to Eun-tak, transformed her into one of the most in-demand actresses of her generation almost overnight.

Crucially, Kim refused to coast on that fame. Where many stars would have repeated a winning formula, she kept reinventing herself: the dual-role fantasy of The King: Eternal Monarch, the genre-bending charm of Yumi's Cells, and the prestige drama Little Women, which earned a perfect critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes. Each project widened her audience while deepening critical respect, so that she was simultaneously a beloved popular star and a serious actress — a balance few performers ever achieve.

The culmination came in 2024 with Exhuma. Anchoring an occult thriller that sold more than 11 million tickets and became the highest-grossing Korean film of the year, Kim delivered a shaman's ritual so mesmerising it entered the cultural conversation on its own. Winning Best Actress at both the Baeksang Arts Awards and the Blue Dragon Film Awards in the same year, she joined Korean cinema's exclusive “Ten Million Club” and confirmed what fans had long known: she had grown from the “Goblin's bride” into one of the country's defining leading actresses.

What sets Kim Go-eun apart is her refusal to be typecast. From the tender warmth of Ji Eun-tak to the steely intensity of a shaman, she moves between blockbuster romance and challenging arthouse material with rare ease. She has famously limited advertisement work to protect the integrity of her characters, choosing roles for their substance rather than commercial appeal. Off screen, she is equally admired for consistent philanthropy, donating to disaster-relief efforts and children's hospitals throughout her career. With her 2025 Netflix double-header and the 2026 return of Yumi's Cells 3, Kim Go-eun shows no sign of slowing down — and her filmography continues to grow into one of the most distinguished bodies of work in contemporary Korean cinema and television.

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