Who’s Your Fave K-Drama “Jae-Ha”?

My name may be unusual in the U.S., but it's pretty common in South Korea

My name isn’t uncommon in Korea. But, as you can imagine, I never had to worry about a classmate sharing my first name after we immigrated to the United States. On the other hand, whenever my friends and I went to the mall to buy keychains or anything that had a name pre-printed on it, I never found mine listed anywhere along with all the Julies and Kevins.

So imagine my delight when I started watching Korean dramas and saw characters who share my name!

With that said, here is a list of the Jae-Ha’s I have seen in K-dramas.

This guy, from “Dream High,” wasn’t really a reporter. He was actually an undercover talent agent (if memory serves me correctly). But check it out — he even has my last name, too. Woot!

This Jae-Ha (little boy in the vest) makes a brief appearance in “Call Me Mother.”

One of my favorite actors is Ji Chang-Wook. He plays a character with my name (though spelled slightly differently in Hangul) in “The K2”:

And just so you remember how fierce us Jae-Has can be…

Yup.

Then we have actor Shin Jae-Ha, who portrays the younger version of Gi Jae-Myung in “Pinocchio.” In a clever meta moment, he returns for the series finale as a broadcast journalist interviewee whose name is … Shin Jae-Ha.

[FYI: My review of “Pinocchio” will be up later this week. Please look forward to it.]

And finally, the last time I saw my name mentioned was in this year’s sleeper hit “Lovely Runner.” Tae-seong (Song Geon-hee) talks about an upcoming 돌잔치 (first birthday party) for a friend’s son, who is named Jae-Ha. That K-drama Jae-Ha is the youngest character sharing my name to date.

Have you seen my name in any other shows? If so, let me know (and if you remember the episode it was in, even better.)

And similarly, has your name been featured in any K-drama? Let me know in the comments, please.

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Appearance alert

I’ll be one of the speakers at the Behind the Scenes of K-pop symposium at the University of Southern California on Oct. 18. Admission is free, but RSVPs are required.

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