Updated: July 7, 2023
Many fictional characters are likeable, but when we talk about over the top wealth and intelligence performed by talented actors, only a few are memorable. Here are sixteen characters who qualify the most iconic rich, smart, and good-looking in the world of Korean dramas: The list is according to the drama’s release date.
1. Yoo Ah-in as Han Se-joo
Yoo Ah-in as Han Se-joo in tvN’s Chicago Typewriter (2017) is a famous best-selling novel writer who lives alone in a mansion and keeps a huge library of books. Due to a traumatic experience of personal abandonment in the past, he lacks social skills and appears cold towards people. Nevertheless, deep within him lies kindness that is willing to sacrifice for another.
2. Park Seo-joon as Lee Young-joon
Park Seo-joon as Lee Young-joon in tvN’s What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim (2018) is a handsome, intelligent, and capable Vice-Chairman in a company. He is the definition of wit and charms, one who makes your heart swoon with his elegance in dating. Whatever you want as his lover, he will purchase or do it for you, regardless of the cost.
3. IU as Jang Man-wol
Lee Ji-eun or IU as Jang Man-wol in tvN’s Hotel Del Luna (2019) is a hotel owner who loves extravagant things, luxurious outfits, cars, and expensive champagne. She is the type of leader who can run anything, is strong willed and decisive that people fear her authority. Although she is hard to please sometimes, she beats a soft heart within her that knows how to love and goes the extra mile to protect others.
4. Son Ye-jin as Yoon Seri
Son Ye-jin as Yoon Seri in tvN’s Crash Landing On You (2019) is a smart, pretty, and successful South Korean CEO who runs her own beauty and fashion company. She has a strong willed personality, sets high standards and demands perfection when it comes to business and personal goals in life. She can be cold and stubbon sometimes but she has a teachable heart that knows how to extend compassion and get along well with others.
5. Hyun Bin as Captain Ri
Hyun Bin as Captain Ri in tvN’s Crash Landing On You (2019) is the son of a powerful political leader in North Korea. He studied music in Switzerland and is a great concert pianist before taking the role of a military leader stationed along the North Korean portion of the DMZ. Although he appears to be cold and unapproachable, he has a golden heart for people and loved ones.
6. Seo Yea-ji as Ko Mun-yeong
Seo Yea-ji as Ko Mun-yeong in tvN’s It’s Okay To Not Be Okay (2020) is a famous best-selling author of children’s books. She loves fashion and lives in a luxury apartment in the city but one day moves to her family’s mansion in a faraway land to rethink life but is faced with nightmares of the past that she often expresses in the way she writes dark stories. Traumatized as a child, she deals with life and people harshly until she meets a community who makes her feel the warmth of love. The newfound family becomes the instrument to help her heal in the process.
7. Lee Minho as Lee Gon
Lee Minho as Lee Gon in SBS’ The King Eternal Monarch (2020) is the third king in the fictional Kingdom of Corea. He is the type of King whose patriotism exceeds self-protection that he would sacrifice himself in order to keep his people from harm. Besides his intelligence and great leadership as a King, he is also a skilled rower and mathematician.
8. Kim Seonho as Han Ji-pyeong
Kim Seonho as Han Ji-pyeong in tvN’s Start-Up (2020) is a self-made investor and a respectable figure in Sandbox company. Although he is known to be highly critical and perfectionist at work, people depend on his great leadership skills and expertise. He lives alone in a high-end apartment facing the Han River, drives luxury cars, and wears designer brands from suits to watches. Everything from his visuals exude confidence and intelligence. Also named as “good boy”, deep within him lies a generous and warmhearted man.
9. Song Joong-ki as Vincenzo Cassano
Song Joong-ki as Vincenzo Cassano in tvN’s Vincenzo (2021) is an Italian lawyer and Mafia consigliere of Korean descent. He was an orphan in Korea, adopted, and raised by a patriarch of the Cassano mafia family in Italy, then returns to his homeland with the quest of recovering his 1.5 tons of gold hidden in an old plaza building. Amid chaos and threats, he remains unbothered and exudes confidence with his tactics and killer moves. Besides his wealth, he is also very smart, handsome, and has a good sense of humor.
10. Ahn Hyo-seop as Kang Tae-moo
Ahn Hyo-seop as Kang Tae-moo in SBS’ Business Proposal (2022) is the President and CEO of GO Food company. He graduated from Harvard University and worked at the overseas branch of GO Food in United States. He speaks English fluently and his accent is to die for. He appears to be a busy man who has no time and desire for romantic relationships, dismissing all blind dates required by his grandfather until he encounters a woman of wits. Smitten, he transforms from a cold man to the most romantic and extravagant lover of all.
11. Song Joong-ki as Jin Do-jun
Song Joong-ki as Jin Do-jun in JTBC’s Reborn Rich (2022) is the youngest grandchild of a powerful businessman and owner of a big company. From a loyal employee of Soonyang Group who was framed and murdered named Yoon Hyeon-woo, he was reborn as Jin Do-jun with a plan for revenge in process by taking over the entire company with his great wisdom. He pursues law with the highest grades at a prestige university, invests his money with great returns, runs his own business called Miracle, and is appointed by his grandfather as the CEO of Soonyang Financial Holding Company.
12. Lee Seung-gi as Kim Jung-ho
Lee Seung-gi as Kim Jung-ho in KBS’ The Law Cafe (2022) is a prosecutor known as a “monster genius” at work who has a strong sense of justice and abhors unlawful practices. One day, he quits his job due to a political issue that involves his father, uncle, and ex-girlfriend. Although jobless, he owns a building and lives on the rooftop, content with his unbothered, simple way of life just reading books or sunbathing. From a formal suit, he becomes a carefree man who wears comfortable clothes everyday, and sometimes spends time with his neighbors chatting during meal times, until his ex-girlfriend rents the first floor of his building to run a law cafe. He becomes involved with her affairs helping people solve legal problems while they sort out their own personal issues of the past.
13. Jung Kyung-ho as Choi Chi Yeol
Jung Kyung-ho as Choi Chi-yeol in tvN’s Crash Course In Romance (2023) is a celebrity and highly in-demand math instructor at a popular private education institute. Known as the “One Trillon Won Man”, he takes pride at the value of his time where he gets paid for 17 million won every 10 minutes, which is 100 million won an hour and 2.7 billion a day, for a total of one trillion won each year. Although he lives a productive career and a quiet life alone at a high-end apartment, he has an eating disorder and finds it hard to eat just any food that is being served. Until he gets a taste of Nation’s Best Banchan, a shop run by his student’s mother, who becomes his personal chef in exchange for private tutorial sessions with her daughter. He slowly transforms from a man indifferent around people to a man who is warm and generous.
14. Lee Bo-young as Go A-in
Lee Bo-young as Go A-in in JTBC’s Agency (2023) is a creative director who gets promoted to a higher position, becoming the first first female Chief Creative Officer of her agency. Although she is bullied at work for her educational background and looked down upon by office misogynists, she proves them wrong everytime with her top-notch skills and intelligence, defeating prejudice against women leadership. She is highly competitive, independent, lives alone in a huge apartment, and unbothered with her singleness.
15. Kim Hee-ae as Hwang Do-hee
Kim Hee-ae as Hwang Do-hee in Netflix’s Queenmaker (2023) is a powerful fixer of a huge company who lives in a luxurious apartment, rides a high-end car, and wears designer brands from clothes to shoes. She walks with power and confidence, and speaks with intelligence. However, she gets kicked out after choosing the path of justice, which strongly opposes her powerful boss. Using her best skills and competence, she becomes a campaign manager for a human rights lawyer, making her the next mayor.
16. Lee Junho as Gu Won
Lee Junho as Gu Won in JTBC’s King The Land (2023) is an heir of a luxury hotel named King The Land. He has it all—topnotch education, wealth, and good looks. He rides a luxury car, wears designer brands, and lives at the penthouse suite of his father’s hotel. After studying in London, he returns to Korea to face his sister in an intense competition for the hotel inheritance. He cannot stand fake smiles and abhors hotel employees who smile a lot or greet him cheerily until he meets the “Best Talent” he calls “Phony Cheon”, turning his dark world bright.
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