Our Favourite Kim Seon Ho K-Dramas

So you've just finished Can This Love Be Translated?, you've fallen completely for Kim Seon-ho's dimples, and now you're sitting there wondering what to do with your life. Welcome to the club. Membership is in the millions, the meetings are held on Reddit at 2 AM, and the only requirement is admitting you've rewatched that one smile scene at least seven times.

Here's a thing about Kim Seon-ho that you probably didn’t know before: the guy was a freaking theatre actor for years before he even touched television, therefore earning the nickname “theatre idol”.

When he finally made the jump to TV in 2017, he took his time and built his career slowly with one supporting role at a time. 2020’s Start-Up turned him into the Internet’s favourite second lead. And then Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha happened in 2021, and suddenly the entire world knew his name.

If you’re ready to fall all over again, here’s your roadmap.

Start-Up (2020)

If Can This Love Be Translated? was your introduction to Kim Seon-ho, I’m disappointed. And if you want to start somewhere to understand why people have been obsessed with him since 2020, you start with Start-Up.

Set in Korea's fictional Silicon Valley, the show follows a group of entrepreneurs chasing tech dreams, and extremely complicated love triangles. Kim plays Han Ji-pyeong, a brilliant investor with a tragic backstory and an unrequited love that makes you want to throw things at your screen. Here's the catch: he's the second male lead. Which means you will spend 16 episodes rooting for him, crying for him, and watching him not get the girl. It's brutal. Fans were so devastated that "Team Good Boy" (Ji-pyeong's nickname) became a whole internet movement.

Where to watch: Netflix

Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha (2021)

This is the one. The show that turned Kim Seon-ho from K-drama darling into a global household name. Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha is a feel-good romantic comedy about a perfectionist Seoul dentist (Shin Min-a) who moves to the seaside village of Gongjin and immediately clashes with Hong Du-sik (Kim Seon-ho), the local jack-of-all-trades who's beloved by literally everyone.

It's a classic opposites-attract setup, but what makes it work is Kim's performance as Du-sik, a character who's effortlessly charming on the surface but quietly carrying trauma underneath. The show became one of the highest-rated cable dramas in Korean history and one of Netflix’s biggest global hits of 2021. Kim was named Gallup Korea’s Television Actor of the Year.

If Can This Love Be Translated? made you crave warmth, this is where you go next.

Where to watch: Netflix

When Life Gives You Tangerines (2025)

After a brief career hiatus following personal controversy in 2021, Kim Seon-ho returned to Netflix in 2025 with When Life Gives You Tangerines, an generational epic starring IU as Geum-myeong, a woman navigating life in 1950s Seoul. Kim plays Park Chung-seop, an artist working at a movie theatre who paints film posters and eventually becomes Geum-myeong's unexpected romantic interest.

This was the role Kim took specifically because of the director (Kim Won-seok of Misaeng and My Mister fame). He told W Korea he'd "never shed so many tears while reading a script" and had zero regrets about signing on. The show was a critical darling, rated the best show of 2025, and was praised for its contemplative pacing and emotional sincerity.

Where to watch: Netflix

Welcome to Waikiki 2 (2019)

Before Kim Seon-ho was making us yearn in romantic dramas, he was actually doing… slapstick comedy. Yes. The show follows a group of twenty-somethings trying (and failing) to run a guesthouse in Seoul while chasing their personal dreams. It's slapstick. It's ridiculous.

Kim plays Cha Woo-sik, an aspiring singer whose life is a series of increasingly absurd misadventures. If you want a break from rom-coms but not Seon-ho, then this might be a good watch.

Where to watch: Viki

The Tyrant (2024)

Instead of Waikiki 2, If you still want to see Kim Seon-ho do something completely different, then The Tyrant is your answer. This is an action-thriller spy drama about a stolen bioweapon, international espionage, and a whole lot of betrayal. Kim plays Director Choe, a key figure in the intelligence race.

It's a tonal 180 from his romantic roles, and that's exactly the point. After years of being typecast as the soft, emotionally available leading man, Kim wanted to stretch. The Tyrant gave him that space to be the tense, mature male lead. Reviews were mixed on the show itself, but Kim's performance was praised for proving he could hold his own in this genre.

Where to watch: Disney+

What's Next: Portraits of Delusion (Coming 2026)

If you've binged everything and you're still hungry for more, Kim Seon-ho's next project is Portraits of Delusion, a dark fantasy mystery thriller co-starring Bae Suzy. The show follows Yun Ilho (Kim), a struggling painter commissioned to paint the portrait of Song Jeong Hwa (Suzy), a mysterious hotel owner who hasn't been seen in public for over half a century. Plot twist: she's a vampire. The series oscillates between 1935 Gyeongseong and 1800s Shanghai, and promises to be Gothic, suspenseful, and deeply romantic in that doomed, atmospheric way.

It's releasing on Disney+ in the second half of 2026. So mark your calendars.