Su Ae began her acting career in an episode of MBC’s Best Theater in 2002. In 2003, she bagged the Best New Actress honors at the MBC Drama Awards for Love Letter and Merry Go Round. In 2004, she made her big screen debut in the drama film A Family, which earned her multiple Best New Actress trophies. That same year, she joined the main cast of the hit KBS2 epic drama Emperor of the Sea, which gave her an Excellence Award at the KBS Drama Awards. In 2008, she played the titular character in director Lee Jun-ik’s film Sunny, which scored her numerous Best Actress citations. In 2010, she received two more Best Actress awards for the action-thriller film Midnight FM. She also acted alongside Jung Woo-sung and Cha Seung-won in the 2010 SBS espionage series Athena: Goddess of War. This was followed by another leading role in the SBS romance melodrama Thousand Day Promise, which won her a Top Excellence Award at the 2011 SBS Drama Awards. In 2015, she was named Best Actress at the 28th Grimae Awards for the SBS series Mask. In 2018, she took home another Best Actress trophy at the 7th Korea Best Star Awards for the drama film High Society.


Su Ae graduated from Gyeonggi Girls’ Commercial High School.