Bae Doona Profile
Name: Bae Doo Na
Native name: 배두나
Also Known as: Bae Doona
Nationality: South Korean
Gender: Female
Born: October 11, 1979
Born in October 11, 1979, actress Bae Doo-Na started her professional career as a fashion model in 1988. Quickly moving to a high-profile role in the acclaimed South-Korean TV series, HIGH SCHOOL, Bae Doo-Na was cast as an iconoclastic student who defied her teachers and pushed her friends to think outside the box. Also set in an academic environment, FANATIC consolidated Don-na's appeal among young South-Koreans for her portrayal of an art student determined to leave her parent's home and pursue her love for a mysterious boy.
Bae Doo-Na's first leading role in a motion picture was in the black comedy, BARKING DOGS NEVER BITE (1998). Winner of the Best New Actress Award at the 21st edition of the Blue Dragon Awards (South Korea's Golden Globe), Bae Doo-Na became a critic's favorite for her layered yet animated portrayal of a young woman who helps her tenant locate a lost dog.
After choosing to play a more feminine and "normal" character in the 1999 release PLUM BLOSSOM, Don-na Bae went on to star in the critically acclaimed TAKE CARE OF MY CAT, playing once again, a character who is independent from both family and men. With TAKE CARE OF MY CAT, Bae Doo-Na won three Best Actress Awards-on at the 9th Chunsa Film & Art Film festival, another at the 38th Baek Sang Art Awards and the prestigious Korean film critics award.
2003 was less kind to Bae, as she saw both Tube and Spring Bears Love flop at the box office. After completing principal photography on Spring Bears Love, Bae decided to take time off from film, saying: "I never lived even once without having anything to do. The moment a film was presented to the press, I was almost always already shooting the next one ... I thought by myself: now my first cycle is really over. While I rest a little, I wanted to make a fresh new start."
In her time off, Bae took up photography, much of which can be seen between her official blog and her photo book. Bae finally stepped onto a theater stage in 2004, for a production of Sunday Seoul (not to be confused to the South Korean movie of the same title). The play was co-written by Park Chan-wook, whom she had previously worked with.
In 2005 Bae appeared in the Japanese film Linda Linda Linda, and in 2006 she worked with Bong Joon-ho again on The Host, currently the highest grossing film in South Korean box office history.
In 2009-2010 she won accolades for Air Doll, a film by Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda about an inflatable sex doll that develops a soul and falls in love.