Why is Netflix's Sweet Home action star Lee Si-young the first Korean actress to have over 10m followers on TikTok?

She's an amateur boxer who won several titles between 2010 and 2013. In her latest drama, Netflix's monster hit Sweet Home, she plays a tough kick-a** firefighter and former special forces soldier, showing off some impressive muscles and stunt work.

While popular and loved among die-hard K-drama fans, Lee Si-young doesn't dominate the news as much as some of her more famous peers.

However, in the last few months, the 38-year-old has found immense fame in an unusual place: TikTok.

In fact, she was just named the first Korean actress to have over 10 million followers on the platform, even though she uploaded her first video only in August last year. In comparison, she has "only" 1.3 million on Instagram.

Her popularity on TikTok is largely due to the creative and hilarious videos that showed off her irreverent sense of humour and the stark contrast to her public image.

For instance, she has no qualms playing an airhead, like in this video, looking unglamorous here, or getting caught in embarrassing situations like in here and here.

Every one of her 120 videos get at least 1 million views, with this 'suspenseful thriller' getting the highest views at 93 million.

[embed]https://www.tiktok.com/@leesiyoung38/video/6932597790409362689?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1[/embed]

In an interview with The Star in January this year, Si-young says she's a fan of the comedy genre.

"Comedy is something that I am always willing to work on. In fact, earlier in my career, I did a lot of comic roles and I really loved doing them," she said.

"However, after I began to work out, I took on stronger and more action-packed roles. So now, I do TikTok as a way to release my comedic side."

If you love the ones above, go to her TikTok account and we're sure you'll be very entertained for the next hour.

[embed]https://www.tiktok.com/@leesiyoung38/video/6893299064964762881?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1[/embed]

kwokkarpeng@asiaone.com