The Parasite characters feature Bong Joon-ho’s most renowned cast, thanks to the global success that the 2019 thriller garnered. From winning the Palme d’Or at Cannes to creating history as the first non-English-language film to receive the Academy Award for Best Picture, Parasite introduced its acclaimed writer-director and its Korean-language-speaking cast to a larger audience. Revolving around a poor family’s deceptive scheme to gain employment in a rich household, Parasite doubles as an anti-rich satire and an anxiety-inducing thriller.

From capturing the amusement of mundane everyday activities to going down a dark path of homicidal chaos, the Parasite characters go through a lot. The sheer unpredictability of its plot makes Parasite one of the best movies to switch its style halfway through. Bong’s cast plays a pivotal role with their nuanced performances, not foreshadowing the final shocks. Reuniting with his frequent collaborator Song Kang-ho, the filmmaker ᴀssembled a stellar group of acting veterans and new faces from his home country.

Song Kang-ho As Kim Ki-taek

The Patriarch Of The Kim Family

Character: Song Kang-ho leads the Parasite cast as Kim Ki-taek, the patriarch of the Kim family. He is a cheerful person and tries his best to provide for his wife and children even as they live in a congested semi-basement flat in Seoul. He has held several jobs, working as a valet and at a bakery. However, he struggles to provide for his family. His aspirations to earn more lead him down a spiral of dark events to Parasite’s ending.

Actor: Song previously collaborated with Bong Joon-ho on three films before being cast in Parasite, playing Detective Park Doo-man in the crime thriller Memories of Murder, snack vendor Park Gang-du in the monster film Host, and train designer Namgoong Minsoo in the sci-fi action thriller —and Bong’s English-language debut — Snowpiercer.

Many of Song Kang-ho’s best movies are cult favorites in South Korea. Apart from working for Bong, he has also collaborated with renowned Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook, acting in three of his films. He appeared in Joint Security Area as Sgt. Oh Kyeong-pil, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance as revenge-seeking father Park Dong-jin, and Thirst as priest-turned-vampire Sang-hyun. Song also portrayed the тιтular protagonist in the historical action drama A Taxi Driver.

Lee Sun-kyun As Park Dong-ik

The Father Of The Park Family

Character: Lee Sun-kyun appears in the Parasite characters as Park Dong-ik, the male head of the Park family. He is a wealthy businessman, and even though he represents the parasitic elite class, he is otherwise a mild-mannered person. He is mostly a kind man but also shows signs of snobbish behavior, which plays into the class struggles of the film. He is also someone who is disconnected from his son and often has little knowledge of the desires of those around him.

Actor: After being relegated to minor TV roles, Lee broke out as music producer Choi Han-sung in the romantic series Coffee Prince. In movies, he collaborated with arthouse auteur Hong Sang-soo, playing North Korean student Yoon Kyeong-soo in Night and Day, short film director Nam Jin-gu in Oki’s Movie, and film studies professor Lee Seong-joon in Nobody’s Daughter. Lee Sun-kyun sadly died on December 27, 2023.

Cho Yeo-jeong As Choi Yeon-gyo

The Mother Of The Park Family

Character: The Park family matriarch is a homemaker and mother of two. Despite her efforts to be a caring parent, she can’t form a close bond with her children, relying on servants to take care of them. She’s as kind as her husband but can come across as tone-deaf in front of people of a lower social status. She is also someone who is mostly unable to care for herself and spends most of her time lying around the house or shopping for items for the house.

Actor: Cho Yeo-jeong has appeared in the historical romance The Servant as Seong Chunhyang, the heroine of the Korean folktale Chunhyangjeon. She also starred in the erotic romance films The Concubine and Obsessed and the TV shows Divorce Lawyer in Love and I Need Romance. In 2024, she starred in the mystery thriller series Tarot and the erotic mystery thriller Hidden Face.

Choi Woo-shik As Kim Ki-woo

The Son Of The Kim Family

Character: One of the most intelligent Parasite characters, Kim Ki-woo is the Kims’ son who comes up with a plan to infiltrate the Park household. An academically gifted student, he poses as an English tutor to teach the Parks’ daughter, with whom he also starts a romantic relationship. Despite his intelligence, he is shy and mild-mannered in terms of his personality. While he has good intentions, he’s ultimately dishonest and is still pushed to move up the class ladder in the end, even after the tragedy.

Actor: The character is played by Choi Woo-shik, who first gained recognition as troubled teenager Yeong-jae in the coming-of-age drama Set Me Free. The Parasite cast member also reached a wider audience with the zombie survival thriller Train To Busan, where he played high school baseball player Min Yong-guk. He has since begun picking up leading roles in the drama series Out Beloved Summer and the Netflix crime thriller series A Killer Paradox​​​​​​.

Park So-dam As Kim Ki-jung

The Daughter In The Kim Family

Character: The Kims’ daughter and Ki-woo’s sister, Kim Ki-jung gets recruited into the Park household as an art therapist for their younger son. She is skilled at PH๏τoshop to forge documents, and it’s this deception that makes it possible for her brother — and later the rest of her family — to gain employment at the Parks’ residence. She also adds to one of Parasite’s most surprisingly funny moments as she sings a jingle to remember her new alias’s backstory.

Actor: Apart from Parasite, Park So-dam gained recognition for playing the allegedly demonically possessed girl Young-shin in The Priests and high-school athlete Eun Ha-won in the romantic K-drama Cinderella with Four Knights. She has received several award nominations and wins over her acting career and also has a strong presence in theater, including the stage adaptation of the vampire story Let Me In (based on Let the Right One In).

Jang Hye-jin As Kim Chung-sook

The Mother Of The Kim Family

Character: Kim Chung-sook is the matriarch of the Kim family who works as a housekeeper at the Park house. A generally kind-hearted person, Chung-sook is an efficient problem solver and remains calm even in some of the most intense moments of the thriller. However, she is also brusque and often shows little sentimentality, which has rubbed off on her daughter. Chung-sook is a very strong woman, raised in poverty and unwilling to let it hold her down.

Actor: Before joining the Parasite cast as Chung-sook, Jang Hye-Jin was known for appearing in the popular Korean romance series Crash Landing on You, in which she played protagonist Dan’s ambitious mother, Ko Myeong-eun. She also collaborated with Korean director Lee Chang-dong, playing Park Myung-Suk in Secret Sunshine, which also starred Parasite‘s Song Kang-ho. She reunited with the filmmaker for Poetry, being credited as Mr. Kang’s second daughter-in-law.

Lee Jung-eun As Gook Moon-gwang

The Parks’ Original Housekeeper

Character: Gook Moon-gwang is the Parks’ original housekeeper who is fired from her job after the Kim family orchestrates a complicated plan to oust her. Though she vows vengeance against the Kims, she is otherwise depicted as a caring housekeeper who is loyal to her employers. She has had a deeper connection with the Parasite house as she also served its previous owners. She is also part of the biggest twist in the story, as her husband lives in secret in a subterranean bunker.

Actor: Just like Song Kang-ho, Moon-gwang’s actress, Lee Jung-eun, is also a frequent collaborator of Bong Joon-ho’s, first appearing as a murdered girl’s relative in Mother and then voicing the тιтular creature in Bong Joon-ho’s Okja. She gained further acclaim with her first starring role as time-traveling film director Ji-wan in Hommage. In 2024, she took on the lead role in the series Miss Night and Day and a supporting role in the mystery melodrama series The Trunk.

Park Myung-hoon As Oh Geun-sae

Moon-gwang’s Husband

Character: The Parasite cast also features Park Myung-hoon in the role of Oh Geun-sae, Moon-gwang’s husband who secretly lives in the basement of the Parks’ house. His shocking reveal sets the stage for Parasite’s disturbing horror-like ending. Oh Geun-sae is strongly devoted to the Park family and shows his graтιтude by constantly yelling “Respect.” However, his violent rampage also proves his unpredictable persona. It is Geun-sae who starts the killing spree in revenge after his wife’s death.

Actor: The Parasite cast member appeared in the romance TV series Crash Landing on You, in which he played the cheerful North Korean Major General Ko Myeong-seok. He also played the Mint Bureau Director Cho Young-min in the Money Heist spinoff Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area. He also received critical attention for his role in the drama film Ash Flower, where he received a nomination for Best Supporting Actor from the 5th Wildflower Film Awards.

Jung Ji-so As Park Da-hye

The Park’s Oldest Daughter

Character: Park Da-hye is the elder child of the Park family, learning English under Kim Ki-woo. She initially comes off as a spoiled brat, but it turns out that she cares more about love than her family’s wealth. This is more than evident from her romantic feelings toward her tutor and the moments when she tends to his injuries. She is the most unlike her parents, as she denounces the upper-class people, despite her family living that lifestyle, and often shows that she looks at all class statuses as equal to her.

Actor: Park Da-hye is played in Parasite by Jung Ji-so, who broke out as a child star in May Queen as a younger version of the supporting character Jang In-hwa. She also appeared in the romantic K-drama W, playing a younger version of its surgeon protagonist, Oh Yeon-Joo. After appearing in Parasite, she went on to appear in the movies The Cursed: ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Man’s Prey and Men of Plastic, and the TV shows Hellbound, Curtain Call and Who Is She.

Jung Hyeon-jun As Park Da-song

The Park’s Youngest Child

Character: The youngest member of the Park family, Park Da-Song is an inquisitive young boy. In fact, it is his curiosity that almost leads to the Parks discovering the Kims’ secrets. It is the portrait that Da-song drew in the film that showed the man secretly living in the basement, portrayed as a monster, something that teased the violent second half of the film. The pH๏τo also included a tent, and there were hints that he knew the Kims were in the house as well, showing the youngest child probably knew the most.

Actor: The character is played by Jung Hyeon-jun, who played Kim Seo-won in the action thriller Special Delivery. That 2022 film found him yet again playing the son of a wealthy man. The Parasite cast member also played the younger versions of the lead characters in several shows, including Bad Prosecutor, Moonshine, The King: Eternal Monarch, and Sisyphus: The Myth. He also starred in the mystery thriller series Mine as a top actress’s stepson, Han Ha-joon.

Parasite Supporting Cast & Characters

The Rest Of The Cast

Park Keun-rok as Yoon – A chauffeur working for the Parks, Yoon is one of the earliest Parasite characters to fall prey to the schemes devised by the Kim family. He is played by Park Keun-rok, who previously appeared in Bong Joon-ho’s Okja as a Riverside Expressway Policeman. He also acted in the Designated Survivor adaptation Designated Survivor: 60 Days as Park Soo-kyo.

Park Seo-joon as Min-hyuk – Kim Ki-woo’s friend who leaves to study abroad is the one who suggests that Ki-woo tutor at the Parks’ house. His appearance is brief but crucial as he gives the Kim family a scholar’s rock with metaphorical significance in Parasite. He is played by Park Seo-joon, an actor who is a regular on many K-dramas, such as Kill Me, Heal Me, She Was Pretty, What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim, and Itaewon Class. In films, Park Seo-joon also appears in The Marvels, making him part of the MCU.

Jung Yi-seo as CEO of Pizza Place – Jung Yi-seo is part of the Parasite cast as the owner of a pizza parlor. She is known for playing Yoo Mi-ji in the psychological thriller Decision to Leave and Kim Hyeon-ju in the coming-of-age zombie apocalypse series All of Us Are ᴅᴇᴀᴅ.

Jo Jae-myeong as CEO of Pizza Place’s brother – Credited as the brother of the Pizza Place CEO, Parasite is Jo Jae-myeong’s only screen role so far.

Kim Kyu-baek as Drunk Person – Kim Kyu-baek plays a drunkard who roams on the streets of the Kim family’s neighborhood. Apart from being in the cast of Parasite, the actor also played Private Kim in the Train to Busan sequel Peninsula and Joo Myeong-hun in the Netflix dark fantasy series Hellbound.