Shin Min-a (; born 5 April 1984) is a South Korean model and actress best known for starring in television dramas A Love to Kill (2005), My Girlfriend Is a Gumiho (2010), Arang and the Magistrate (2012), Oh My Venus (2015), Tomorrow, With You (2017), Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha (2021), and Our Blues (2022).
Career
Modeling
Shin began her career as a model for the teen magazine KiKi in 1998, under her birth name, Yang Min-a. Without her knowledge, her friend applied her to the magazine's model competition, where she got 1st place. She first made a name for herself starring in commercials for brands such as Samsung and Korea Telecom 018, in which her line "love moves about" gained popularity amongst Korean youth. Along with Kim Hyo-jin, Kim Min-hee, and Yang Mi-ra, she was considered one of the "four teenage commercial stars," and a representative of the "N generation" (a Korean analogue to the millennial generation). She has since become one of the most in-demand and highest paid commercial endorsers in South Korea. Notable among her forays into branded entertainment is the 2008 multi-episode Summer Days opposite Hyun Bin and Ryoo Seung-bum for LG Xnote featuring music by You Hee-yeol, as well as Friends & Love, a movie-style extended advertisement for Giordano in 2011 costarring Jung Woo-sung and So Ji-sub.
In 2009, Shin went to Milan, Italy to shoot a photo spread for Elle Korea with Calvin Klein model Jamie Dornan. In 2011, she was chosen as the first Asian model for the DIY Project ad campaign of American clothing brand Rag & bone, then was subsequently featured in The New York Times'''s T Magazine.
Shin is Roger Vivier's Maison Ambassador for Korea. On November 11, 2021, she was appointed as Gucci's brand ambassador with Lee Jung-jae.
Acting
Shin started acting by starring in music videos. In 2000, she was cast in the high-budget music video for Jo Sung-mo's "Do You Know," as a Vietnamese girl who falls in love with a Korean soldier during the Vietnam War. Ahead of her film debut in Volcano High, she adopted the stage name Shin Min-a, to avoid confusion with the actress Yang Mi-ra. While Volcano High started production earlier, her first appearance as an actress was in the melodrama Beautiful Days. She took 5 months of acting lessons in preparation for her role. Regarding it, she stated to The Dong-a Ilbo: "It was a completely different role than my regular image [...] at first, it was awkward, but I'm confident I won't get criticized for 'clumsy acting.'"
In 2003, she took the main role in the college romance movie Madeleine with Jo In-sung. She then took on a supporting role in Kim Jee-woon's noir film A Bittersweet Life, reuniting her with previous co-star Lee Byung-hun. She then portrayed a deaf character in Sad Movie. This was followed by leading roles in the melodrama A Love to Kill with Rain, romantic comedy series The Beast and the Beauty with Ryoo Seung-bum, and psychological thriller Lucifer with Uhm Tae-woong and Ju Ji-hoon. In the 2007 film My Mighty Princess, Shin simultaneously played two characters.
As Shin entered her mid-twenties, she began showcasing more maturity in her choice of roles. In Go Go 70s, Shin played a sexy counterculture singer and won numerous accolades for her portrayal. She then acted as an unfaithful wife in The Naked Kitchen, and a cynical young woman in search of her father in Sisters on the Road, a critically acclaimed indie film which also stars fellow actress and close friend Gong Hyo-jin. But Shin became best known for her portrayals of supernatural horror icons revamped into endearingly innocent yet spunky heroines in the rom-com My Girlfriend Is a Gumiho (2010), and the historical drama Arang and the Magistrate (2012).
After appearing in The X, a 2013 spy thriller short film directed by Kim Jee-woon, Shin returned to the big screen in 2014 in Gyeongju, an introspective arthouse romance opposite Park Hae-il. This was followed by romantic comedy film My Love, My Bride, in which she and Jo Jung-suk played a newly married couple; it was a remake of the same-titled 1990 hit which starred Choi Jin-sil and Park Joong-hoon.
In 2015, Shin and So Ji-sub were cast in the romantic comedy series Oh My Venus. For her character, an overweight lawyer, Shin underwent a three-hour makeup/prosthetic session every shoot. Shin won Excellence Award, Actress in a Miniseries and with So Ji-sub, Shin won Best Couple Award from 2015 KBS Drama Awards. She also won Outstanding Korean Actress in 11th Seoul International Drama Awards.