Yeom Hye-ran (born October 30, 1976) is a South Korean actress, with a portfolio of film, television, and theatre performances. Yeom began her career in theater in 1999 and made her screen debut in 2003. She has since played supporting roles in film and television, notably Dear My Friends, Guardian: The Lonely and Great God (2016), I Can Speak, The Most Beautiful Goodbye (2017), Life (2018), When the Camellia Blooms, Innocent Witness (2019), Chocolate (2019–2020), The Uncanny Counter (2020–present), and The Glory (2022–2023).
Early years
Yeom was born on October 30, 1976, in Yeosu, South Jeolla Province, South Korea. She comes from a family of farmers and her mother was also a market rice seller.
Yeom's original career aspiration was to be a Korean language teacher. Hence she attended Department of Korean Literature of Seoul Women's University, where she discovered her love of acting as member of college theater club.
Career
Debut and early careers
By chance, Yeom saw flyers of member recruitment from Yeonwoo Theater Company (Yeonwoo Mudae). In 1999, she auditioned and was accepted as a member. The following year, Yeom debuted as an actress with the play "Teacher Choi" .
Yeom made her screen debut in Bong Joon-ho's film Memories of Murder, which was released in 2003. It was during Yeom's portrayal of So-hyeon's mother in Yeonwoo's play This Lee (이 爾) that Director Bong witnessed her talent and invitated her to audition in his film.
In 2003, Yeom took part in a play produced by the theater company Iwa-sam, written and directed by Jang Woo-jae. The play, titled The Charyeoksa and the Accordion, depicts the story of an accordionist who wanders around the country looking for his runaway wife, his honest friend Cha Charyeoksa, a third-rate theater actor Yang Yang-sook, and a naive virgin girl called Sunny. Yeom's performance as Sunny was praised as chilling.
The play was selected as 2003 Culture and Arts Promotion Agency New Artist Support and had an encore performance in 2004 thanks to the audience's response. Yeom reprised her role Sunny in the encore performance. In December 2004, Yeom won Popular Actress Award from 1st Beautiful Play Award voted by theater netizen for her performance as Sunny.
Theater Iru and award-winning theater works
In 2004, former Yeonwoo member, Son Ki-ho established Theater Company Iru (극단 이루) based in Seondol Theater. Yeom and fellow actress Woo Mi-hwa followed him to be founding members. Iru first founding performance was the play "Ask the Blind Father for Directions" . Written and directed by Son Ki-ho, it premiered on June 4 at Dongsung Stage Small Theater in Daehangno, Seoul, and ran until July 4, 2004. The story centered in a family of three consisting of a son, So Seon-ho who was diagnosed by cancer with a parent with disability. Yeom acted as Seon-ho's mother, opposite Kim Hak-sun who acted as the father. Yeom was praised for her performances and even called as the second Hwang Jung-min. Her costar also praised her performance and said,
The play "Ask the Blind Father for Directions" won an award at The 16th Geochang International Theatre Festival and received support from the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture. From March to July 2005, Yeom reprised her role in the play "Ask the Blind Father for Directions" at National Theater, Seoul Arts Theater and other theaters. In February 2006, Yeom won the Rookie Award at the 42nd Dong-A Theater Award for her role in the play.
In 2008, Yeom acted as Park Mi-cheon in Son Ki-ho's play "The person who lived in Gampo, Deokyi, and Yeolsu" (감포사는 분이, 덕이, 열수). She reprised the role in 2009. In 2009, at the 14th Hee-seo Theater Award, Yeom won the Expected Theater Actress Award.
In May 2010, Iru's play "The person who lived in Gampo, Deokyi, and Yeolsu" performed at the 2010 Seoul Theater Festival. Yeom won Acting Award and the play won Popularity Award.
Venture into small screen and other recent projects
Yeom debuted in television with Noh Hee-kyung's drama Dear My Friends in 2016. Directed by , it had star-studded casts, starring Go Hyun-jung, Kim Hye-ja, Na Moon-hee, Go Doo-shim, Park Won-sook, Youn Yuh-jung, Joo Hyun, Kim Young-ok and Shin Goo. Yeom acted as Soon-yeong, adopted eldest daughter of Moon Jung-ah (played by Na Moon-hee), who struggled with domestic violence. Yeom was praised for her daughter-mother lasting impression performance with Na Moon-hee.