Meet Lim Ji-yeon, playing The Glory’s oh-so hateable villain: besides starring with Song Hye-kyo in Netflix’s most-watched TV series, she’s also in Money Heist Korea and is friends with Exo’s Suho

K-dramas continue to rank among Netflix’s most-watched TV shows: Song Hye-kyo’s latest revenge drama The Glory has just taken the top spot as the most-watched non-English language global release on the streaming platform.

NME reported that the show’s newly released part two amassed a staggering 124 million hours of views from March 6 to 12, and made it into the Top 10 in 79 countries around the world. The Glory has also become the most-watched TV series among both English and non-English shows on Netflix.

(Lim Ji-yeon in a still from The Glory. Photo: Netflix)

As the buzz surrounding The Glory continues to grow, it’s impossible not to focus on the incredible supporting cast members, such as Lim Ji-yeon who stars as Park Yeon-jin, the grown-up bully in the series who fans love to hate and simply can’t get enough of.

So, what else do we know about the 32-year-old star? Lim Ji-yeon is also in Money Heist Korea

(Song Seung-heon as Colonel Kim Jin-pyeong and Lim Ji-yeon as Jong Ga-heun in the South Korean film Obsessed. Photo: Handout)

Lim is no stranger to the world of Korean entertainment, having made her debut in the industry back in 2014 with Obsessed, an erotic romance film opposite Song Seung-heon.

Since then, she has appeared in a number of popular TV shows and films, earning a reputation as a versatile and talented performer. She played a supermarket worker in High Society (2015), followed by the box-office action-fantasy film Spiritwalker (2021) and Money Heist Korea: Joint Economic Area (2022) where she played Seoul, a mercenary leader, in the show’s second part.

Since 2020, Lim has been signed with Artist Company, which represents many esteemed Korean stars such as Squid Game’s Lee Jung-jae, Park So-dam and Jung Woo-sung, per Hellokpop.

She is friends with Exo’s Suho and Song Hye-kyo in real life (Lim Ji-yeon and her celeb friends. Photo: @limjjy2/Instagram)

With almost a decade-long showbiz career, Lim has of course worked with many celebrities. She is an alumnus of the prestigious Korea National University of Arts along with actresses Kim Go-eun and Jung So-min, reported Preview. Interestingly, she is also friends with Exo’s Suho, whom she met in university.

(Lim Ji-yeon and Exo’s Suho went to university together. Photo: @limjjy2/Instagram)

she said, adding that they are in a group chat together where they share support and funny pictures.

(Lim Ji-yeon refers to Song Hye-kyo as her unnie, meaning older sister in Korean. Photo: @limjjy2/Instagram)

Lim also recently disclosed that despite their on-screen rivalry in The Glory, she and Song Hye-kyo are actually good friends in real life. “We are so innocent and nice. Even when filming, all we talk about is food and dogs. We are complete opposites of our characters. Hye-kyo unnie (older sister) even bought me pork belly and we are really close,” she told Korean Cosmopolitan, adding that due to the show’s meteoric success, the cast are closer now more than ever. What Lim Ji-yeon think about her character in The Glory?

(Lim Ji-yeon as Park Yeon-jin in The Glory. Photo: Netflix)

Along with the other villains in The Glory, Lim appeared in Korea’s W Magazine recently to discuss their TV characters. Lim said that she was shocked when she first read Park Yeon-jin’s character and confessed that it was hard to play a villain with no elaborate backstory.

(Lim Ji-yeon is convincing as villain Park Yeon-jin on The Glory. Photo: Netflix)

Her global success was supposedly predicted by a fortune-teller (Lim Ji-yeon revealed that a fortune-teller supposedly predicted her success before The Glory was released. Photo: @limjjy2/Instagram)

Here’s an interesting titbit for Lim’s fans: Esquire Korea reported that Lim met with a fortune-teller who supposedly predicted her global success before the release of The Glory.

(Will Lim Ji-yeon take her fortune-teller’s advice to learn Chinese and English in 2024? Photo: @limjjy2/Instagram)

He not only predicted Lim’s global success, but also advised her to learn Chinese or English as she is expected to receive greater attention in 2024, have a stronger fan base and appear in many advertisements. Wow!

Ref: Meet Lim Ji-yeon, playing The Glory’s oh-so hateable villain: besides starring with Song Hye-kyo in Netflix’s most-watched TV series, she’s also in Money Heist Korea and is friends with Exo’s Suho (scmp, straitstimes)