Kwon Sang-woo

Kwon Sang-woo

Kwon Sang-woo (b. August 5, 1976), the most visible example of the so-called "mom-zzang" (slang for "great body") movement, started his career as a fashion model in the late 1990s. His first acting experience was in the TV drama Delicious Proposal, and for the first few years of his entertainment career he received only minor roles on television, before debuting in Volcano High (2001). The following year he played his first lead role in the comedy Make It Big together with Song Seung-heon. Kwon's breakthrough came in the phenomenally successful comedy My Tutor Friend, as a troublesome high school boy who is tutored by a college student of the same age (played by actress Kim Ha-neul). In this year he also starred in My Good Partner, the world's first movie made for mobile phones, and in the music video collection Project X. His next film released in early 2004 was also a great hit. Once Upon a Time In High School portrays the authoritarian society of the 1970s through a notoriously violent high school. Simultaneously, his TV drama Stairway To Heaven was winning over high ratings on TV. The drama was eventually screened throughout Asia and helped to turn him into a regional star. However Kwon's followup film Love So Divine, about a priest in training who falls in love, earned poor reviews and did not get much attention from audiences. For 2006, Kwon returns in a big-budget action noir titled Running Wild, about a detective, a prosecutor, and a criminal who are all equally vicious.

Complete filmography: Running Wild (2005) Love, So Divine (2004) Once Upon a Time in HS (2004) My Tutor Friend (2003) Make It Big (2002) Volcano High (2001)