Jeon Do-yeon, who rose to stardom as an ad campaign model, ascended to even greater heights when she ventured into Korean movies and TV shows — her rising net worth is a testament to the same. Here’s a closer look at the K-celebrity’s fortune and life beyond the camera.
Over her three-decade-long career, Jeon Do-yeon has been a part of some of the best movies and TV shows. These include Lovers in Prague (2005), Secret Sunshine (2007), The Housemaid (2010), A Man and a Woman (2016), Crash Course in Romance (2023), Kill Boksoon (2023) and Revolver (2024).
Talking about how she deals with the pressure of maintaining her global popularity, Jeon said in a 2024 interview with Yonhap News, “Someone will eventually succeed me, but the fact that I’m still working on numerous projects suggests I’m holding my ground, doesn’t it?”
Jeon Do-yeon will be next seen in The Price of Confession, an upcoming Netflix Korean thriller drama.
All about Jeon Do-yeon: Net worth, career, brand deals and more
The net worth of Jeon Do-yeon
According to media outlet Kdramastars, the net worth of Jeon Do-yeon stood at USD 5 million in 2023.
While it is difficult to quote an exact figure in 2024, Jeon is one of the most popular veteran Korean actors. Most of her fortune comes from her acting projects, theatre, advertisements and brand endorsements.
Her career and filmography
Jeon Do-yeon started her career as a model for Johnson & Johnson advertisements. However, she gradually pursued her passion for cinema and transitioned into acting. She made her television debut in 1992 with the K-drama Our Paradise season 2. Following this, she landed supporting roles in various romantic K-dramas such as Scent of Love, General Hospital (both 1994), Love is Blue, A Sunny Place of the Young (both 1995) and Star in My Heart (1997).
Directed by Jeon San, A Sunny Place of the Young recorded a whopping 62.7 per cent viewership rating and is one of the highest-rated KBS2 dramas of all time. Meanwhile, Star in My Heart became one of the few romance dramas to grab the limelight outside Korea in 1997.
Following her success in K-dramas, Jeon Do-yeon tried her luck in movies and made her big screen debut with The Contact in 1997. A Chang Yoon-hyun directorial, the bleak cyber romance movie was an instant commercial hit. According to critic Darcy Paquet’s Koreanfilm.org, it became the second highest-grossing Korean movie of 1997 with over 674,933 ticket admissions. Additionally, Jeon also swept the Best New Actress award at various film events for her role as home shopping telemarketer Soo-hyeon, including the Blue Dragon Film Awards, the Korean Association of Film Critics Awards and the Grand Bell Awards.
Jeon Do-yeon further showcased her versatility with two theatre plays — Educating Rita (1997) and The Queen of Opera Tears (1998). Not to mention the 1998 K-drama A Promise, where she excelled as a doctor torn between her duty and her love for a dangerous bandit. Her performance in the show earned her Best Actress at the 35th Baeksang Arts Awards. Other projects that helped Jeon Do-yeon establish herself as the “chameleon” of the Korean entertainment industry are the 1999 movies The Harmonium in My Memory and Happy End.
Over the years, Jeon has landed leading roles in major projects, including I Wish I Had a Wife (2001), No Blood No Tears (2002), Untold Scandal (2003), My Mother, the Mermaid (2004) and You Are My Sunshine (2005).
In My Mother, the Mermaid, Jeon plays an office worker who travels back in time to experience her mother’s life as a young woman. Deemed one of her most challenging roles by her fans, the actor reportedly earned USD 3,500,000 for her role in the movie.
Leaving her mark at the Cannes Film Festival with Secret Sunshine
Jeon got her first blockbuster release with Secret Sunshine in 2007. A Lee Chang-dong directorial, the movie debuted at the 60th Cannes Film Festival to great critical acclaim. Meanwhile, Jeon, who plays a vulnerable widow in the movie, won the Best Actress award (Jury) at the festival, thus becoming the first Korean ever to receive an acting award at Cannes.
Apart from being a critically hit project, Secret Sunshine also broke records at the box office. One of the highest-grossing Korean movies of 2007, this Jeon Do-yeon starter recorded a whopping USD 11.6 million against a budget of USD 3.6 million and a rating of 94 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes.
In October 2009, the French government honoured Jeon Do-yeon with the Chevalier des Arts et Lettres medal for her contributions to art and cinema worldwide. With this feat, Jeon joined other notable honorees of this award, including Korean actor Lee Byung-hun, British author J. K. Rowling and American actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
In 2010, the Korean star landed her most controversial role with Im Sang-soo’s The Housemaid. An erotic psychological thriller, the movie tells the story of a manipulative maid (played by Jeon) unleashing chaos in the lives of a happily married couple. It grossed over USD 15,038,301 at the box office. A remake of Kim Ki-young’s 1960 Korean classic of the same name, The Housemaid was also chosen to compete for the Palme d’Or at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival.
Rise to fame with Crash Course in Romance and Kill Boksoon
After achieving international fame with Secret Sunshine, Jeon Do-yeon was chosen to be a panel member of the main competition jury at the 67th Cannes Film Festival in 2014. With this, she became the second Korean to receive this honour after director Lee Chang-dong in 2009.
Deemed the “Queen of Tears” for her roles in various melodramas, Jeon’s popularity continued to soar with titles such as The Shameless (2015), Memories of the Sword (2015), The Good Wife (2016), Birthday (2016), Beasts Clawing at Straws (2020) and Lost (2021). According to Soompi, the South Korean actress earned USD 76,900 per episode for her role in the tvN drama The Good Wife.
In 2023, the K-celebrity landed her first Netflix hit Crash Course in Romance opposite Jung Kyung-ho. The tvN original K-drama is directed by Yoo Je-won and focuses on the love story of a former national handball player and a mathematics teacher. One of the highest-rated K-dramas of all time, it recorded a solid 17 per cent finale viewership rating according to Nielsen Korea.
The same year, in 2023, the Jeon Do-yeon starrer crime drama Kill Boksoon premiered in the Berlinale Special section of the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival. According to media outlet allkpop, the movie topped Netflix’s Global Top 10 Movies (non-English) with 19.61 million views in just three days after its release.
Jeon plays police officer Haa Soo-young in the 2024 action crime flick Revolver. The movie marks the first collaboration between Jeon and director Oh Seung-wook in nine years since their 2015 neo-noir crime drama flick The Shameless. Co-starring Ji Chang-wook, Revolver won Best Film at the 45th Blue Dragon Film Awards.
Luxury brand endorsements that add to the net worth of Jeon Do-yeon
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One of the most popular actor-models in South Korea, Jeon Do-yeon has an array of brand deals and advertisements adding to her net worth. These include Burberry, Saint Laurent, Louis Vuitton, Boucheron, Balenciaga, Johnson & Johnson Korea, Emmons Furniture, Joseph and Stacey, Moe, Helena Rubinstein’s Re-Plasty range, Samsung, Off White, Sisley Korea, KOBACO, Nadri Cosmetics, Hyundai, FnC Kolon and Dongyang Cosmetics.
Additionally, Jeon has graced multiple prestigious magazine covers including Dazed, W Korea, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, The Star, One, Marie Claire, Instyle and High Cut.
Personal life
Born on 11 February 1973 in Seoul, South Korea, Jeon Do-yeon never dreamt of becoming an actor. However, after graduating from the Department of Broadcasting at Seoul Institute of the Arts, Jeon became a model and discovered the fascination of working in front of the camera. She eventually shifted to acting and went on to join the Korean entertainment industry.
In terms of her relationship, the Lost actor has been happily married to professional car racer and South Korean businessman Kang Shi-kyu since 11 March 2007. The couple became parents to a beautiful daughter on 22 January 2009.
(Hero and featured image credits: 매니지먼트숲/@management_soop via Instagram)
Frequently Asked Questions
As of 2023, Jeon Do-yeon's net worth stood at USD 5 million. Most of her fortune comes from her acting projects, theatre, advertisements and brand endorsements.
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Written by
Sushmita Mahanta
Digital Writer (Growth) - Entertainment
Sushmita is a writer with a passion for crafting engaging and informative stories. An avid fan of K-pop and K-dramas, Sushmita mostly writes about Korean culture and entertainment. When not writing, you can find Sushmita dancing, reading, collecting books, learning about fashion, art, motion pictures, and appreciating BTS.
