The Day His New York Visa Was Denied, the Model Became an Actor

Part 2 of 6 in The Man Dior Saw First: Kim Young-kwang

Featured photo: Kim Young-kwang in 2018. Photo: Kazoo3131 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped).

After the Dior Homme runway, Kim Young-kwang’s next destination was New York. The road ended at the airport. “I went to the airport with my portfolio all packed up, and they wouldn’t give me a work visa.” He calls that day his turning point (Newspim, Jan. 23, 2015). Instead of New York, he walked onto a drama set. As a fan, I’m almost grateful for that rejected visa. Without that day, we might never have met Kim Young-kwang the actor.

2008: A rookie model in Hyun Bin and Song Hye-kyo’s drama

KBS’s 2008 drama Worlds Within was set inside a TV network, written by celebrated screenwriter Noh Hee-kyung and led by Hyun Bin and Song Hye-kyo. The producers wanted the most talked-about model in the fashion world for the role of Jae-hwan, and Kim, who came recommended, got it (Wikitree, Oct. 22, 2026). It was the first drama for a 21-year-old who had never taken an acting lesson.

The next year he appeared in MBC’s Triple and KBS’s My Fair Lady. In 2010 he spent 138 episodes of the MBC sitcom All My Love as a character who shared his first name, Lee Young-kwang (Korean Wikipedia), and was nominated for best new sitcom actor at that year’s MBC Entertainment Awards.

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2011: The “Model Avengers” on one screen

KBS’s 2011 Drama Special: White Christmas was an eight-episode thriller set in an elite boarding school cut off by snow. It put Kim Young-kwang, Kim Woo-bin, Lee Soo-hyuk, Hong Jong-hyun and Sung Joon in the same cast, all rookies straight off the runway. Kim played Jo Young-jae. For a short-form drama it was rare enough to get a DVD and a published script book (Wikitree, Oct. 22, 2026), and fans named the five the “Model Avengers” (Wikipedia, citing enewsWorld, Dec. 15, 2013). The friendship has lasted (Top Star News, 2026). Asked about Kim Young-kwang, Kim Woo-bin and Hong Jong-hyun on SBS’s Midnight TV Entertainment in 2015, Lee Soo-hyuk said: “We’re closer than you’d think.” (My Daily, Apr. 9, 2015)

40,000 views as of Oct. 25, 2026.

The same year, on Channel A’s Bachelor’s Vegetable Store, he played a young greengrocer alongside Ji Chang-wook and Lee Kwang-soo, and sang the soundtrack song “Oh Sing Sing Man” with them (Wikipedia). He also appears in Park Bom’s “Don’t Cry” music video.

2012: A cop movie full of models

The 2012 comedy Runway Cop sent Kang Ji-hwan undercover at a fashion show. Kim played top model Han Seung-woo, and the poster was filled with model-turned-actors (enewsWorld, May 22, 2012). That year he was also Han Tae-sung in KBS’s Love Rain with Jang Keun-suk and Girls’ Generation’s Yoona, and Gong Gi-joong in JTBC’s Can We Get Married?

8,400 views as of Oct. 25, 2026.

2013: A Good Doctor resident and two big ads

In KBS’s 2013 hit Good Doctor, the original of the American series The Good Doctor, he played pediatric surgery resident Han Jin-wook next to Joo Won and Moon Chae-won (HanCinema, June 24, 2013). His shy romance with Uhm Hyun-kyung’s character drew attention, and he was nominated for best new actor at the KBS Drama Awards.

94,000 views as of Oct. 25, 2026.

The ads got bigger. He shot HiteJinro’s Chamisul, Korea’s best-selling soju, with Lee Yu-bi, and Lotte’s Ghana Chocolate “Soulmate” campaign with Son Soo-hyun (Korean Wikipedia).

19,000 views as of Oct. 25, 2026.

9,900 views as of Oct. 25, 2026.

On November 30 that year, Kim showed up as a model on the Milan special of MBC’s Infinite Challenge, then Korea’s biggest variety show. The clip, in which even a careless snapshot of him looks like a magazine spread, is still on MBC’s official channel.

73,000 views as of Oct. 25, 2026.

Five years of being scolded on set

Off camera, it wasn’t as glamorous as it looked. He remembers those years like this: “I got yelled at a lot on set for being bad at acting.” (Hankook Ilbo, Aug. 28, 2018) On the runway he had been the lead from day one. On set, every day he was a rookie again. Reading that confession made me love him even more. Behind the glamour of the runway was someone who got scolded every day and quietly kept going.

On December 12, 2013, he quietly entered the Nonsan army training center for his mandatory service. It was snowing in Nonsan that day (Sports Hankook, Dec. 17, 2013).

Where to watch (checked Oct. 25, 2026, via JustWatch) – Worlds Within (2008): Korea — Watcha – Runway Cop (2012): Korea — Netflix, Watcha – Good Doctor (2013): US — Rakuten Viki, OnDemandKorea

Trailers: Kim Young-kwang's 2012 dramas

Love Rain (KBS, 2012)

Can We Get Married? (JTBC, 2012)

Sources

• Newspim, Jan. 23, 2015; Wikitree, Oct. 22, 2026
• Wikipedia, “Kim Young-kwang (actor)”; Korean Wikipedia
• My Daily, Apr. 9, 2015; Top Star News, “Model Avengers”
• HanCinema, June 24, 2013
• Hankook Ilbo, Aug. 28, 2018
• Sports Hankook, Dec. 17, 2013