Do you know the 2024 Baeksang Awards was the 60th edition? Daebak, right? I once said the Baeksang Arts Award is arguably the biggest award event in Korea, but scratch that and I was right. No award is coming close. 60 whole years of presenting awards? Incredible. The award was established in the 1960s and is still running strongly to date.

Although the award has different categories in television, film, and others, let's focus on our beloved television series for now. One of the Beaksang awards in the Television category is the Best Actress award, so let’s look at actresses who have bagged this award in the last ten years.

2015- Song Yoon-ah in Mama

In 2015, actress Song Yoon-ah bagged the best actress award for starring in the drama ‘Mama’. The series told the story of a successful painter and single mother of one who got diagnosed with an internal disease and is striving to get her son adopted into a nice family when she dies. Her main character role in the series got her the award.

2016- Kim Hye Soo in Signal

Signal is a thriller drama that earned Kim Hye Soo her Best Actress award in 2016. She was the female lead of the series, which tells the story of a cold-case profiler in 2015 and a detective in 1989 working together to solve a series of related murders spanning three decades using a special walkie-talkie to communicate with each other.

2017- Seo Hyun-jin in Another Miss Oh

Another Miss Oh is one popular series deserving of many awards. It is the story of a sound director in his 30s whose bride disappeared on their wedding day, leaving him miserable. One year after that incident, He was told that his bride was going to marry a young entrepreneur, however; she was a total stranger who coincidentally had the same name as his bride. Seo Hyun-jin was the main character of this series and that got her the best actress in 2017.

2018- Kim Nam-joo in Misty

The 2018 Best Actress award went to Kim Nam-joo after acting as an anchorwoman (lead role) in the series ‘Misty’ which is the story of Go Hye-ran (Kim Nam-joo) who becomes the prime suspect in a murder case. Her husband Kang Tae-wook (Ji Jin-hee) ends up being her legal counsel despite their marriage being on the rocks.

2019- Yum Jung-ah in Sky Castle

The 2018/19 series ‘Sky Castle’ has a mixture of different genres that involve mystery and satire. Sky Castle talks about the materialistic desires of upper-class parents in South Korea and how they ruthlessly secure the successes of their families at the cost of destroying others' lives. Yum Jung-ah embodies her role so well that she got the 2019 Best Actress Award.

2020- Kim Hee-ae in The World of the Married

The World of the Married series brought the veteran actress “Kim Hee-ae” her best actress award in 2018 and I will say it was well-deserved. The series is the story of a married couple whose betrayal of one another leads to a whirlwind of revenge.

2021- Kim So-Yeon in The Penthouse: War in Life

War in life indeed. The Penthouse is a 3 season series that almost employed all genres from suspense to mystery and all other dark genres. It tells the story of a real estate and education war, and a desire to be number one. It depicts the solidarity and revenge of women who turned to evil to protect themselves and their children. Kim So-Yeon was able to bag the Best Actress award with her flawless acting after starring in this series.

2022-Kim Tae-ri in Twenty-Five Twenty-One

The coming-of-age series “twenty-five Twenty-one really” did its numbers, and it's no surprise that Kim Tae Ri won the Best Actress award in 2022 with her embodiment of the main lead character. It’s the story of a teen fencer who pursues big ambitions and meets a hardworking young man who seeks to rebuild his life in a time when dreams seem out of reach.

2023- Song Hye-Kyo in The Glory

It’s not a surprise that Song Hye-kyo got the 2023 Best Actress award because she earned it in “The Glory” drama. She starred as Moon Dong Eun, who dreamed of becoming an architect. However, after suffering a brutally violent attack from her bullies, she is forced to drop out of school. Years later, one of the bullies gets married and has a child who attends the elementary school where Moon Dong Eun now teaches.

2024- Lee Hanee in Knight Flower

Lastly, the most recent best actress is Lee Hanee, who starred in the Sageuk “Knight Flower.” The series tells the story of Jo Yeo-hwa, a widow who is the daughter-in-law of the most prestigious noble family in Joseon. She lives the quiet, reclusive life of a noble widow at home during the day, but sneaks out of their house at night to help people in need.

Wow! Just one Sageuk in ten years. Did you notice that?

If you ask me, all these awards were well-deserved.

However, everyone has their opinion on everything, so let me ask, which of these awards do you not support?