Hwang Dong-hyuk황동혁

Hwang Dong-hyuk (황동혁) is a South Korean film and television director, screenwriter and producer. He was born in Seoul on May 26, 1971, studied communications at Seoul National University and took a master of fine arts in film production at the University of Southern California.¹ His first feature was My Father (2007). The second, The Crucible (도가니, also released as Silenced, 2011), is based on a novel by Gong Ji-young about the abuse of students at a school for deaf children, and drew 4.7 million viewers in Korea, according to Wikipedia. Miss Granny followed in 2014.¹

He is best known as the creator, writer and director of Squid Game (오징어 게임). Hwang has said Korean investors and broadcasters turned the project down for about a decade before Netflix approved it; the first season came out on September 17, 2021, season 2 on December 26, 2024 and the final season, season 3, on June 27, 2025.⁴³ At the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards on September 12, 2022, Hwang won Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for the first episode, "Red Light, Green Light", and Lee Jung-jae won Outstanding Lead Actor; DabPop's awards feature notes the two were the first Asians to win those categories.²

Hwang also received the Geumgwan (first class) Order of Cultural Merit in 2022, one of the highest honours for contributions to South Korean culture and arts.¹