Kim Kwang Kyu

Kim Kwang-kyu (김광규) was born on December 8, 1967, in Yeongdo District, Busan. He completed high school as a military scholarship student and then served five years in the Republic of Korea Army (1986–1991) as a non-commissioned officer. After his discharge he worked as a taxi driver in Busan, and by his own later account lost his savings in the stock market, became a credit delinquent, and spent about three years living in a small boarding room before turning seriously to acting in his thirties. After finishing an acting academy program, a connection with director Kwak Kyung-taek, a fellow instructor at Busan Arts College, led to his film debut in 1999 as a physical therapist in Dr. K. Kwak later cast him in 2001 as the abusive homeroom teacher in Friend, the supporting role that first brought him wider attention. Kim went on to complete a bachelor's degree in Korean language and literature at Korea National Open University, finishing it not long after Friend was released, to satisfy his mother's wish that he hold a four-year degree. Through the 2000s he worked steadily as a supporting actor in film and television, appearing in Tazza: The High Rollers (2006) and Voice of a Murderer (2007) among many others. His first extended regular part came in the 2006 MBC series Couple or Trouble, where he played the comic, bumbling Manager Gong for all 16 episodes, a role he has described as the turning point of his career. From the 2010s, Kim built a parallel career in variety television. He became a regular cast member of MBC's I Live Alone from 2013 and joined tvN's Three Meals a Day in 2015, while continuing to take supporting and cameo roles in dramas including I Can Hear Your Voice (2013), Pinocchio (2014), Hwarang (2016), Business Proposal and Our Blues (both 2022), and Knight Flower and The Judge from Hell (both 2024). He remains a regular presence on Korean variety shows into the mid-2020s.