Kim Young-ok

Kim Young-ok is genuinely one of those performers who earns the title "National Grandma" not through a PR campaign but through sheer decades of showing up and being real on screen. Born in 1938 in Seoul, she debuted in 1957 and has been a fixture in Korean film and television ever since — the kind of face that makes any scene feel instantly warmer and more grounded. What I love about her is that she never needed a flashy gimmick; she just brings this deep, lived-in authenticity to every grandmother role, and audiences across generations respond to it without even thinking twice. Receiving the Order of Cultural Merit in 2018 felt like the industry finally putting a formal stamp on what everyone already knew: this woman is a cornerstone of Korean entertainment. Respecting her craft for that long, that consistently, is its own form of greatness.

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Name (English)

Kim Young-ok

Name (Japanese)

キム・ヨンオク

Reading

きむ・よんおく

Born

January 6, 1938 (age 88)

Origin

Seoul, South Korea

Occupation

actor / film actor / television actor / dub actor

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Capricorn / Tiger

High school

Gyeseong High School

Awards & achievements

• 2018 Order of Cultural Merit, 3rd class

• Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/kimyoung_ok/
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim%20Young-ok
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%AD%E3%83%A0%E3%83%BB%E3%83%A8%E3%83%B3%E3%82%AA%E3%82%AF%20(%E4%BF%B3%E5%84%AA)
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q12588052

Tags

• actor
• film actor
• television actor

Last updated

September 18, 2026

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.