Shin Min a

Modelling

Shin began her career as a model for teen magazine KiKi in 1998. Since then, she became 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.

Acting

Shin appeared in several music videos for K-pop boyband g.o.d, until her acting debut in 2001 with a supporting role in popular melodrama, Beautiful Days. The newcomer quickly rose to stardom, through the high school martial arts comedy film Volcano High with Jang Hyuk, and 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. Known for being a professional actress, she learned the cello for three months to lend realism to her scenes in A Bittersweet Life, and picked up the sign language and interacted with the deaf to better portray her 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 The Devil 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 Nine-Tailed Fox (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 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.

In 2016, Shin is cast opposite Lee Je-hoon in fantasy melodrama, Tomorrow With You, portraying a 30-year-old amateur photographer who finds out that her better half can time travel. The drama was fully pre-produced and premiered in February 2017.

Others

After her travels were documented on the cable channel O'live in 2008, Shin published a book titled Shin Min-a's French Diary in 2009.

She has also contributed her vocals to several singles and soundtracks.

Personal life

Since May 2015, Shin is in a relationship with model-actor Kim Woo-bin.

On May 24, 2017, Kim was diagnosed with Nasopharyngeal cancer. Kim's agency, Sidus HQ stated that Kim had begun drug and radiation treatment and would halt all activities. Shin has responded to this through her agency saying, "I am currently helping Kim Woo Bin get better while he's under treatment."