Lee Jung-jae and Jung Ho-yeon From "Squid Game", First Korean Outstanding Actors for TV in SAG Awards

Netflix's original series "Squid Game" which became the world's top topic and box office hit last year, once again set a meaningful record. Actors Lee Jung-jae and Jung Ho-yeon raised the status of Korean actors by winning the Outstanding Performance by an Actor Awards for Television at the 28th Screen Actors Guild Awards (SAG), a first time for Korean actors.

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At the Screen Actors Guild Award Ceremony held in Santa Monica, California on the 27th (local time), "Squid Game" was nominated in a total of four categories and won three of the award including this year's Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series (Lee Jung-jae), Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series (Jung Ho-yeon) and Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Television Series.

The Screen Actors Guild Awards is an award ceremony hosted by the world's largest actors' union, selecting and awarding actors who performed the best in movies and dramas and is considered one of the four major union awards along with the Producers Guild of America Awards (PGA), Directors Guild of America Awards (DGA), and Writers Guild of America Awards (WAG). In 2020, "Parasite" (19, director Bong Joon-ho) won the Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture in the film category, the highest honor of the Screen Actors Guild Awards, and in 2021, Youn Yuh-jung of "Minari" (Director Lee Isaac Chung) won the Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role in the film category, drawing attention from all over the world.

In particular, this year, the main characters of the "Squid Game" took control of the stage by winning the Screen Actors Guild Awards for the third consecutive year as Korean actors. As a Korean drama series, for the first time in the history of the Screen Actors Guild Awards, the main actors in a non-English drama had the honor of winning the awards.

Lee Jung-jae, who won the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series in the Screen Actors Guild Awards, took out a paper with a pre-prepared comment, but tactfully put the comment paper in his pocket, saying, "I did write something but I don't think I'm going to get to reading it" making the everyone in the hall laugh. He said, "This is truly huge that's happened to me. And thank you to the global audience for all of your love for "Squid Game", he said.

Jung Ho-yeon, who won the Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series, said, "I have sat many a times watching you on the big screen, dreaming of one day becoming an actor. I just want to say thank you so much. Thank you for letting me dream and for opening the door for me", she shed tears of emotion and received applause from everyone.

In addition to Lee Jung-jae and Jung Ho-yeon, Park Hae-soo, Anupam Tripathi, and Kim Joo-ryoung showed their strong presence in "Squid Game".