Park Si-yeon

Park Si-yeon (born Park Mi-seon on March 29, 1979) is a South Korean actress. She joined the Miss Korea pageant in 2000, and used that as a springboard to an acting career, she made her acting debut in China in 2004, appeared in minor roles in several CCTV dramas. In 2005 Park was cast in her first starring role in the Korean drama My Girl, though at the time she was more known for dating actor-singer Eric Mun. As she built her filmography in the following years, Park overcame early criticism of her acting skills and eventually gained respect as an actress in TV series such as Bitter Sweet Life, Coffee House and The Innocent Man, as well as the films The Fox Family, A Love, and The Scent. Early life Park Mi-seon was born in Busan, South Korea. As a child, Park displayed a talent for singing, saying, "When I was young, I used to be so shy that I cried when I was told to sing in front of my dad on the Lunar New Year. My mom ended up sending me to a singing academy, hoping it would help me get over my shyness, but the strange thing is that I couldn't sing in front of my mom but I wasn't nervous at all on stage." In 1990, the fifth grader won the top prize in a children's music contest on KBS. Park began attending college in the United States in 1998, majoring in journalism at Long Island University. In 2000, she took a leave of absence from school and entered in the regional Miss Seoul beauty pageant, placing third, followed by the Miss Korea pageant. Career Though her parents initially opposed her pursuing acting, Park took profile pictures of herself and went to various talent agencies. Her profile photos were eventually handed over to a Chinese agency, and several auditions later, this led to Park making her acting debut in China. Using the stage name Park Si-yeon, she appeared in small roles in three CCTV dramas, and also landed an advertising contract with cosmetics company Enprani. In 2005, Park made her acting debut in her native country of South Korea with the SBS TV drama My Girl, for which she received unanimously bad reviews. But Park continued to work, appearing in more dramas and making her film debut in the 2006 quirky comedy-horror-musical The Fox Family; gradually her acting showed marked improvement. At first constantly struggling to memorize her lines, Park has admitted that she became more relaxed in her approach to acting, and is able to "feel" her characters better.