Yim Si-wan (;
born on December 1, 1988), known mononymously as Siwan, is a South Korean singer and actor. He is a member of the South Korean boyband
ZE:A and its sub-group ZE:A Five. As an actor, he is best known for starring in the film ''
The Attorney
''The Attorney'' () is a 2013 South Korean courtroom drama film directed and co-written by Yang Woo-suk in his directorial debut. With 11,375,954 tickets sold and a revenue of , ''The Attorney'' became the 15th-best-selling Korean film of all tim ...
'' (2013), and the cable series ''
Misaeng: Incomplete Life'' (2014), which were both successful in the box office and ratings.
Early life
Yim Si-wan was born on December 1, 1988,
in
Busan
Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, w ...
, South Korea. He attended Busan Gudeok High School,
Busan National University
Pusan National University (PNU), also called Busan National University, is one of ten Flagship Korean National Universities in South Korea and second highest public universities in South Korea.
Located mainly in Busan (or Pusan), the universit ...
, University of East Broadcasting Arts and is currently studying at Woosong Information College. He legally changed his first name from Woong-jae to Si-wan before his debut.
Career
ZE:A
While attending Chin Chin Song Festival in Busan, Star Empire recruited him as a trainee. He entered a nine-member group called "Children of Empire", where he trained for three years. In 2009, they group started doing guerrilla performances around the country. On January 7, 2010, the group debuted with their
EP, ''Nativity'' under the name ZE:A. He is also a member of the sub-unit, ZE:A-Five.
Acting
Yim joined the cast of the
period drama
A historical drama (also period drama, costume drama, and period piece) is a work set in a past time period, usually used in the context of film and television. Historical drama includes historical fiction and romance film, romances, adventure f ...
''
Moon Embracing the Sun
''Moon Embracing the Sun'' (, also known as ''The Moon that Embraces the Sun'' or ''The Sun and the Moon'') is a 2012 South Korean television drama series, starring Kim Soo-hyun, Han Ga-in, Jung Il-woo, and Kim Min-seo. It aired on MBC from Jan ...
'' (2012), playing the young version of Heo Yeom. Moon surpassed 40% ratings and gained "national drama" status, launching Yim to fame. Later that year, Yim was cast in the revenge drama ''
Man from the Equator
''Man from the Equator'' (; also known as ''The Equator Man'') is a 2012 South Korean television series, starring Uhm Tae-woong, Lee Joon-hyuk, Lee Bo-young and Im Jung-eun. A tense, emotionally charged tale of brotherhood and betrayal, it follow ...
'', playing a cold young man that has a sad story behind his negative outlook on life. This was followed by the
sitcom
A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...
''
Standby'' (2012),
and
Drama Special
''KBS Drama Special'' () is a South Korean anthology series created and broadcast by KBS2, with each episode having a different story, cast, director and scriptwriter. The format is based on its predecessor '' Drama City'' and MBC's Best Theater ...
''Waiting for Love'' (2013).
![Yim Si-wan at Sfunz Square Super Concert, 14 September 2013 04](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Yim_Si-wan_at_Sfunz_Square_Super_Concert%2C_14_September_2013_04.jpg)
In 2013, he starred in the courtroom drama film ''
The Attorney
''The Attorney'' () is a 2013 South Korean courtroom drama film directed and co-written by Yang Woo-suk in his directorial debut. With 11,375,954 tickets sold and a revenue of , ''The Attorney'' became the 15th-best-selling Korean film of all tim ...
'', playing a young student activist detained and tortured by the police on accusations of being a communist sympathizer. The film was a critical and commercial success, selling more than 11 million tickets to become the 8th best-selling Korean film of all time.
Yim won Best New Actor at the Max Movie Awards and the Marie Claire Film Festival.
Yim returned to television in 2014 and starred in two drama series. In ''
Triangle
A triangle is a polygon with three Edge (geometry), edges and three Vertex (geometry), vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC.
In Euclidean geometry, an ...
'', he played the youngest of three brothers separated at childhood, who grew up in a cold
chaebol
A chaebol (, ; ) is a large industrial South Korean conglomerate run and controlled by an individual or family. A chaebol often consists of multiple diversified affiliates, controlled by a person or group whose power over the group often exc ...
household. While in the
webtoon
Webtoons (), are a type of digital comic that originated in South Korea usually meant to be read on smartphones.
While webtoons were mostly unknown outside of Korea during their inception, there has been a surge in popularity internationally ...
adaptation and cable hit drama ''
Misaeng: Incomplete Life'', he reprised his role in ''Incomplete Life: Prequel'' as a former
baduk player who learns to adapt to Korean corporate culture. ''Misaeng: Incomplete Life'' was a commercial hit and recorded high viewership ratings, with a peak of 8.4%; and was dubbed as a "cultural phenomenon". Im won the Excellence Award in acting at the 4th
APAN Star Awards
The APAN Star Awards is an awards ceremony for excellence in television in South Korea and contribution to Hallyu (Korean wave), organized by the Korea Entertainment Management Association (CEMA). Nominees for the awards are selected from Kore ...
for his performance,
as well as Best New Actor awards at the 9th Cable TV Broadcasting Awards and 51st
Baeksang Arts Awards
The Baeksang Arts Awards (), also known as the Paeksang Arts Awards, are awards for excellence in film, television and theatre in South Korea. The awards were first introduced in 1965 by Chang Key-young, the founder of the Hankook Ilbo newspap ...
.
Yim then took on his first big-screen leading role in war drama film ''A Melody to Remember'' (2016), playing a good-hearted soldier who is hoping for a miracle even in a desperate situation.
He was also cast in the Chinese-South Korean web drama ''
My Catman
My Catman (Chinese: 捡来的猫男) is a Chinese-South Korean web-drama starring Im Si-wan, Chae Soo-bin and Kim Myung-soo. A joint production of South Korea's MBC and China's Shanghai Ulike Media, it is to stream online on Tencent's QQLive.
...
'' alongside
Chae Soo-bin
Chae Soo-bin (born Bae Soo-bin on July 10, 1994) is a South Korean actress. She gained recognition for her role in the television series ''Love in the Moonlight'' (2016), and transitioned into leading roles with '' The Rebel'' (2017), ''Stronge ...
and
Kim Myung-soo
Kim Myung-soo (; born March 13, 1992), known professionally as L, is a South Korean singer, actor, and model. He debuted as a vocalist of boy band Infinite in 2010 and its sub-group Infinite F in 2014. He left Woollim Entertainment in August 201 ...
.
In a departure from his usual "nice guy" roles, Yim plays a cunning con-man in the crime caper movie ''
One Line'' (2017). He deviated even farther from his clean-cut image in ''
The Merciless'' (2017), a crime action film where he played an undercover cop who works for a drug-smuggling ring. Yim was invited to the
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...
for the first time. The same year, Yim starred in historical melodrama ''
The King in Love
''The King in Love'' () is a South Korean historical drama directed by Kim Sang-hyeop with screenplay by Song Ji-na, Park Chan-kyung and No Sun-jae, based on the novel of the same name by Kim Yi-ryung. It stars Im Si-wan, Im Yoon-ah and Hong Jong ...
'', playing an ambitious crown prince.
In 2019, Yim was cast in the thriller drama ''
Hell Is Other People
''Hell Is Other People'' () is a 2019 South Korean television series starring Im Si-wan and Lee Dong-wook. Based on the Naver WEBTOON webtoon series of the same name by Kim Yong-ki, it is the second series of OCN's "Dramatic Cinema" project w ...
'', based on the webtoon of the same name. This marks his first project after enlistment.
The same year, he was cast in the period sports film ''
Boston 1947
''Boston 1947'' () is an upcoming South Korean film written and directed by Kang Je-gyu starring Ha Jung-woo, Bae Seong-woo, and Im Si-wan. It tells the story of Korean athletes who participated in the Boston International Marathon in 1947, th ...
''.
In 2020, he was also cast in the disaster film ''
Emergency Declaration''.
In 2020, Yim starred in
JTBC
JTBC (shortened from ''Joongang Tongyang Broadcasting Company'' (; stylized as jtbc) is a South Korean nationwide pay television network. Its primary shareholder is JoongAng Holdings, with a 25% stake. It was launched on 1 December 2011. JTBC ...
’s romance drama ''
Run On,'' alongside
Shin Se-kyung
Shin Se-kyung (; born July 29, 1990) is a South Korean actress, singer and model. She started as a child actress and had her breakthrough in 2009 with the sitcom ''High Kick Through the Roof''. Since then she starred in the films ''Hindsight'' ...
,
Kang Tae-oh, and
Choi Soo-young
Choi Soo-young (; born February 10, 1990), professionally known as Sooyoung, is a South Korean singer, actress and songwriter. She was a member of the short-lived Korean-Japanese singing duo Route 0 during 2002 in Japan. After returning to Sou ...
.
In 2022, Yim starred in the thriller drama ''
Tracer'', which aired on Wavve and MBC simultaneously, and will appear in the ENA drama ''
Summer Strike
''Summer Strike'' () is a 2022 South Korean television series starring Kim Seol-hyun and Im Si-wan. It is based on a webtoon of the same Korean title by writer Joo Young-hyun. The series is an original drama of Genie TV, and is available for str ...
''.
Personal life
Military service
On July 11, 2017, he officially began his
mandatory military service
Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...
. Yim was chosen to be an assistant instructor for new recruits due to his good performance. Yim was discharged on March 27, 2019.
Philanthropy
On March 4, 2022, Im donated million to the Ukrainian Embassy in South Korea. To help Ukrainian victims in
Russian invasion, he also booked a 4-bed dormitory in Kiiwu (Kyiv) for about a month from March 7 to April 4 to help Ukrainian war victims.
On August 10, 2022, Im donated to help those affected by the
2022 South Korean floods through the Hope Bridge Korea Disaster Relief Association.
Discography
Singles
Filmography
Film
Television series
Web series
Television shows
Musical theatre
Ambassadorship
* 2012 Honorary Ambassador of
Korea Tourism Organization
The Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) is an organization of the Republic of Korea (South Korea) under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. It is commissioned to promote the country's tourism industry.
The KTO was established in 1962 as a gover ...
* 2012 Brand Ambassador of
Tissot
Tissot SA () is a Swiss watchmaker. The company was founded in Le Locle, Switzerland by Charles-Félicien Tissot and his son, Charles-Émile Tissot, in 1853. After several mergers and name changes, the group which Tissot SA belonged to was renam ...
Swatch Group Korea
* 2012 Brand Ambassador of Pret-a-Porter Busan (Busan Fashion Week)
* 2012 Honorary Ambassador of
Woosong University
Woosong University, is a 4-year university, located in Daejeon, South Korea providing a specialized curriculum based on foreign-language and IT education for every major field of study.
History
* 1954: Woosong Educational Foundation establis ...
of Informatics
* 2013 Brand Youth Ambassador of
Gyeonggi Province
Gyeonggi-do (, ) is the most populous province in South Korea. Its name, ''Gyeonggi'', means "京 (the capital) and 畿 (the surrounding area)". Thus, ''Gyeonggi-do'' can be translated as "Seoul and the surrounding areas of Seoul". Seoul, the na ...
* 2014 High Ambassador of
Korea International Trade Association
The Korea International Trade Association (KITA) (Korean: 한국무역협회, Hanja: 韓國貿易協會) is a private non-profit trade organization founded in 1946 with 105 traders as its founding members. It is one of Korea's largest umbrella eco ...
* 2014 Brand Ambassador of
FinTech
Fintech, a portmanteau of "financial technology", refers to firms using new technology to compete with traditional financial methods in the delivery of financial services. Artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, and big data are r ...
Financial Technology
Fintech, a portmanteau of "financial technology", refers to firms using new technology to compete with traditional financial methods in the delivery of financial services. Artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, and big data are ...
Group Inc
Awards and nominations
Listicles
Notes
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Im, Si-wan
1988 births
Living people
People from Busan
Male actors from Busan
Musicians from Busan
South Korean pop singers
South Korean male idols
South Korean male television actors
South Korean male film actors
South Korean male web series actors
21st-century South Korean male actors
21st-century South Korean male singers
Japanese-language singers of South Korea
Best New Actor Paeksang Arts Award (television) winners