Shin Seung-ho

Shin Seung-ho was born on 11 November 1995 in Seongnam, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea.^[1][2][3]

From around the age of 10,^[4] he played football.^[5] He quit in 2016 after a knee injury and the realization that soccer was no longer the path for him.^[4][6][7] Shortly after, he landed a part-time job as a security guard at a department store and was once assigned as Red Velvet's bodyguard during a fan signing event.^[8][9]

Shin began working as a model, walking in Seoul Fashion Week and Seoul 365 Fashion Show; he also reached the final stage of the SBS Supermodel Selection Contest.^[10][11] While working as a model, he got acquainted with model Park Dool-seon, who advised him to become an actor along with other acquaintances of his who believed he had a good tone of voice to be one: Shin was skeptical about it, thinking he was not fit to be a celebrity, but after a year of persuasion he was convinced to at least try attending an acting academy in Hyehwa-dong for a month at Park's expense.^[4][12] There he discovered his passion for acting and joined an agency through auditioning.^[4][12][13] He made his debut in the 2018 teen web series A-Teen, playing the male lead Nam Si-woo.^[4][5] This was followed by two more roles as a high school student in the teen dramas At Eighteen directed by Shim Na-yeon and Love Alarm (2019).^[14] In late 2020, he was cast in his first feature film, Baek Seung-hwan's Double Patty,^[15] for which he also recorded a soundtrack song.^[7]

He gained attention in 2021 for his portrayal of Hwang Jang-soo, a villainous sergeant who relentlessly bullies his juniors in the television series D.P.,^[10][16][17] for which he was nominated for the Baeksang Arts Award for Best New Actor – Television.^[18] While filming D.P., he received an offer to play Go Won, a grumpy crown prince who hides a sweet side, in the historical fantasy Alchemy of Souls.^[19][20] The character, initially absent from the original script, was tailor-made for him by director Park Joon-hwa and the Hong sisters after meeting him, and Shin described it as the closest to his real-life personality.^[20][21][22] Also in 2022, he starred as the leader of a gang of thugs in Weak Hero, a teen action series based on the webtoon of the same name, in which he once again worked with D.P. director Han Jun-hee.^[23] Shin initially had to turn down the part because filming would have overlapped with Alchemy of Souls, but they eventually agreed to have him as a special appearance,^[24] and despite his short screentime, he received positive reviews for bringing a three-dimensional character to life.^[25] At the end of the year, he reprised his role as Go Won in the second season of Alchemy of Souls,^[25] and was cast in his second feature film, Pilot, in which he played Seo Hyun-seok, a junior airline pilot.^[26] In 2023, he signed contracts for two more films, the action movie Resurrected Man, based on a webtoon,^[27] and the mystery thriller Only God Knows Everything.^[28] The latter, released two years later, brought him awards as best actor at several international film festivals.^[29]

In 2024, Shin joined the cast of the film adaptation of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint^[30] and the variety show Handsome Guys;^[31] he also started filming Audition 109, a remake of the 2009 film of the same name.^[32] Briefly branching out to music, he formed band Kongaltan through the eponymous YouTube show with fellow actors Shin Hyun-soo, Son Woo-hyeon, Han Min, and You Hyun-soo; they released a single, "Snow Duck", and held a two-day concert at Shinhan Card SOL Pay Square Live Hall in December 2024 with Shin Seung-ho serving as their leader and vocalist.^[33][34]

In 2025, he was cast in the television series Inside Men, set in the same universe as the 2015 hit film of the same name.^[35] He also landed a starring role in 6 Lying University Students, a mystery thriller adapted from the Japanese novel of the same name by Akinari Asakura.^[36]

In October 2025, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Creative Content Agency appointed Shin as the first official ambassador for the 2025 World Webtoon Festival.^[37]

Shin is of Protestant faith.^[38]

He was granted an exemption from military service due to an anterior cruciate ligament rupture sustained in 2021, for which he underwent surgery.^[39][40]