Actor Kim Ji-hun won the excellence in acting award at the 2025 SBS Drama Awards, reaping the fruits of a year of hard work.
Kim Ji-hun at the '2025 SBS Drama Awards' held on Dec. 31 last year received the honor of the excellence in acting award in the miniseries human/fantasy category for showcasing the pinnacle of acting through a varied character transformation as King Lee Jeong in the SBS Friday-Saturday drama The Haunted Palace and for his performance possessed by the eight-legged ghost. Kim Ji-hun led the drama's immersion with his role as the axis of the entire story and his high level of character realization.
In The Haunted Palace, Kim Ji-hun was praised for adding a new dimension to the royal character in historical drama by portraying the complex inner life of the strong monarch Lee Jeong—from charismatic leadership and humane anguish to madness consumed by the eight-legged ghost—with restrained acting.
After receiving the award, Kim Ji-hun said, "The Haunted Palace is a very special work to me. It's not easy for an actor to meet a character they want to confidently add to their filmography, but they trusted me and gave me a difficult role," and added, "I'm grateful because I think I was able to create a great character I can be proud of as much as it was hard." He continued, "Next year will mark about 25 years since my debut, and I will work hard to grow into a better actor in 2026," expressing his gratitude to the production and viewers.
Kim Ji-hun continued nonstop activities across broadcast and OTT platforms this year. He appeared in the drama The Haunted Palace, the tvN Monday-Tuesday drama Nice to Not Meet You, the TVING original Dear X, the Hollywood entry Butterfly, and the Netflix series Genie, Make a Wish, demonstrating persuasive acting that transcended genre limits.
In particular, Kim Ji-hun proved his acting competitiveness across genres by winning the best acting award in the OTT category at the 2025 Seoul International Film Awards. He also achieved meaningful results in popularity and buzz by ranking high in the K-Brand Index in the actor category.
By showing different faces and performances in each work, Kim Ji-hun has expanded his acting spectrum. His consecutive achievements across drama and OTT are cited as keywords representing Kim Ji-hun's trajectory in 2025.<
[Photo] 2025 SBS Drama Awards capture
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