Born in Germany to Korean immigrants, actor Teo Yoo has been busy in recent years. Although Yoo was raised and educated in Germany, upon graduating from high school, he decided to pursue acting. That led him to study the profession abroad in countries like the United States and England, and now he has pursued an electric range of roles in many different countries because of it. Yoo’s first big role came in a Russian film called Leto, which was a musical based on the life of Victor Tsoi, a Koryo-salam who was a co-founder of the Soviet band Kino.
But in recent years, Yoo has become bigger for appearing in high profile shows, dramas, and movies. In the Korean drama world, he has made appearances in Vagabond, Chocolate, and was the male lead in Love to Hate You. Back in the film world, he made a special appearance in Park Chan-wook’s Decision to Leave, which was a hit around the world when it came out in 2022, and rose to even more prominence after starring in Celine Song’s film Past Lives. Until his next big project, these are Teo Yoo’s television shows and movies you should definitely be watching next.
12 Money Game
Released in 2020, Money Game dwells on a big topic: the government is afraid that the 1997 Asian financial crisis is going to happen again in the modern day, and if that happens, it may absolutely devastate the South Korean economy. Money Game is set in the government offices that focus on financial decisions and economy, and the individuals working inside of them. Go Soo, Lee Sung-min, and Shim Eun-kyung portray the three main characters, and Teo Yoo plays a character named Eugene Han.
11 Seoul Searching
Adoptions from South Korea globally have been a prominent phenomenon since the end of the Korean War, but also migration and diaspora has become another deep-rooted issue for those who don’t feel a connection to their culture. Seoul Searching shows what happens when a bunch of youths are sent to Seoul in the eighties in a Korean-government sponsored program. All of them are of Korean descent and the program is intended for them to rediscover their heritage, but this summer in Seoul is going to be unforgettable for a wide variety of reasons.
10 New Year Blues
In New Year Blues, the new year brings a lot of new changes for couples and single people alike. The film focuses on four different couples and the stories that brought them together — or apart — during this time. Although the movie focuses on different storylines and the people who are trying to find love, whether it’s international, healing after a divorce, or trying to overcome their personal issues, it all comes together to show how everyone in the film is connected by the end.
9 One on One
One on One came out in 2014, and was directed by the controversial, yet highly established, director Kim Ki-duk. Ma Dong-seok stars in the lead role of the Leader of Shadow, a ringleader for a terrorist organization looking to get revenge after the death of a young girl. The seven suspects who may have been behind her death are the ones who are targeted by this operation, showing how unjust the legal system has been when it comes to this high school girl’s death. Teo Yoo portrays a member of the organization in the film.
8 Chocolate
A Korean romance drama released in 2019, Chocolate is a show that can be just as sweet as its name implies. Ha Ji-won and Yoon Kye-sang star. Yoon portrays a neurosurgeon who, after being raised in a countryside restaurant, moves to Seoul as an adult to pursue a career in medicine. However, his real passion was to become a chef. But when he was a child, he was friends with a girl who lost contact with him after he moved–she indeed grew up to be a chef, as she was inspired by him. When they meet all these years later, it will change them for the better.
7 The School Nurse Files
Jung Yu-mi and Nam Joo-hyuk star in the Netflix drama series The School Nurse Files, which was based on a novel by the science fiction and fantasy writer Chung Serang. In the series, Jung Yu-mi portrays a school nurse named Ahn Eun-young, and she’s no ordinary nurse. She’s someone who can actually see human emotions and feelings, and when she is given a job at a new school, strange events start occurring. When she meets a teacher at the school who has a strange power, the two end up teaming up in order to stop these events.
6 Dr. Brain
South Korean director Kim Jee-woon, who has become very well known for his movies, came out with a television series called Dr. Brain in 2021. It is based on a webtoon. Lee Sun-kyun portrays Sewon, a brain scientist, who lost his entire family in an accident. He becomes obsessed with the incident and what happened to them, so he begins to try and find out how to sync brains with the deceased to sift through their memories. But the deeper he gets into their memories, the more he becomes confused with what’s real and what’s fake in his own life.
5 Love to Hate You
Teo Yoo and Kim Ok-vin star in the 2023 drama Love to Hate You. Yoo plays an actor who’s prominent in the Korean drama scene, while Kim Ok-vin is a lawyer who struggles to get a job after losing her last one. The two meet and have a rocky start, but when she’s hired at the law firm where he uses for his legal battles, the two are forced to reconcile and work with each other to get their jobs done. When hate turns into love, things are going to get even more sticky for these two professionally. As many celebrities know, it’s hard to keep a relationship quiet, but it’s difficult when the person you’re in love with also technically works for you.
4 Vagabond
In Vagabond, Lee Seung-gi stars as Cha Dal-gun. A stuntman who takes care of his orphaned nephew, he’s on set one day when he realizes the plan his nephew is on has crashed. Cha heads to Morocco in order to collect his nephew’s body and attend the funeral, but when he arrives, he realizes that something is off. The plane accident might not have been an accident. Together with a woman who works for the government (Bae Suzy), they try to investigate what really happened here as the evidence and files start to go missing.
3 Leto
Leto has been one of Teo Yoo’s most prominent roles so far, and the film was selected to compete at the Cannes Film Festival when it originally came out in 2018. Set in Leningrad in the 1980s, it tracks the beginnings of the underground music scene and the band Kino. Yoo portrays Victor Tsoi, one of the co-founders of the band, and how the Leningrad Rock Club was established with approval from the state. Together, the band would push the boundaries of what kind of music could and could not be played in the USSR.
2 Past Lives
Teo Yoo’s role in Past Lives, where he plays the childhood friend, Hae-sung, of the main character Nora (Greta Lee), has been heavily praised along with the other actors in the film. Celine Song’s Past Lives made its debut at the Sundance Film Festival in 2023, and tells the story of Nora, a Korean immigrant to Canada who has started a new life in New York. When her childhood friend Hae-sung starts looking for her, it starts an elaborate dance between the two, showing how some things never change, but others are meant to be left in the past sometimes.
1 Decision to Leave
Park Chan-wook’s 2022 movie Decision to Leave adds to an already-impressive filmography by the director. He took home the award for Best Director for his work on the film at the Cannes Film Festival. Starring Tang Wei and Park Hae-il, the two are a Chinese immigrant and a detective that become tangled in a dangerous and deadly dance when she’s suspected of murdering her husband. The detective tries to close in on the facts of the case and whether she did it or not, but when they become romantically involved, it majorly clouds his judgment. Teo Yoo makes a brief appearance in the film as Director Lee.