Noh Hee-kyung

Noh Hee-kyung — The Writer Who Writes People

If you list Korean dramas people watch on the writer's name alone, Noh Hee-kyung is always on the first line. From 'It's Okay, That's Love' to 'Dear My Friends' and 'Our Blues', her scripts push stories forward with people, not plot twists. In 2026 she writes Tantara, set at the dawn of Korea's entertainment industry in the 1960s-80s.

Her World

Noh Hee-kyung's characters are never perfect. Lovers living with mental illness ('It's Okay, That's Love', 2014), friendship and love in old age ('Dear My Friends', 2016), the days of firefighters and police officers ('Live', 2018), the entangled lives of Jeju islanders ('Our Blues', 2022) — she places lives from the margins at center stage and draws them with respect rather than pity. That is the grammar of a Noh Hee-kyung drama.

The Writer Actors Return To

The same actors keep coming back to her work — a measure of how much they trust the page. With Song Hye-kyo, Tantara marks a third collaboration after 'Worlds Within' (2008) and 'That Winter, the Wind Blows' (2013) — a reunion thirteen years later. This time Gong Yoo, Kim Seol-hyun, Cha Seung-won and Lee Ha-nee join anew.

This Time, Show Business

The stage of Tantara is the entertainment world of the 1960s-80s, where brutality and romance coexisted. The most Noh Hee-kyung theme of all — the growth and love of young people running toward success with nothing — unfolds behind the industry's glitter. Directed by Lee Yoon-jung of 'Coffee Prince', the 22-episode Netflix series is slated for Q4 2026.