Byeon Woo-seok, Jung Hae-in, Jung Soo-min, & more find a spot at the FUNdex Awards 2024, here’s a complete nominees list

The second edition of the FUNdex Awards is set to roll out on December 19, and 2024's most popular Korean actors, such as Kim Tae-ri, Byeon Woo-Seok, Jung Hae-in, Jung Soo-min, and more, have found a spot as the nominees for the best leads. Along with the categories of best actors and actresses of 2024, the FUNdex Awards also include best TV drama, OTT Original Drama category, which includes dramas released on OTT platforms such as Netflix's The 8 Show, Coupang Play's What Comes After Love, among others.

According to Korean news outlet JTBC, the FUNdex Awards claim to be driven by data with the purpose of presenting the best TV and OTT programs and performers. The winners in each category are selected by aggregating the data from verified surveys conducted over the past year. Surveys include topicality surveys, search responses, the FUNdex index, and the number of times a performer entered the top 10 for topicality.

The FUNdex Awards 2024: Complete list of different categories and their nominees, including Byeon Woo-seok, Jung Hae-in, Jung Soo-min & more.

The award includes eight categories for best works and 10 categories dedicated to best performers. The grand prize, or 'Daesang,' for the best work and the best performer will be selected from among the winners. The FUNdex Performer Awards category includes not just the artists/performers in television dramas but also OTT dramas, variety shows, competition programs, etc.

Nominees for the TV Drama Male Lead:

Kim Soo-hyun for Queen of Tears
Byeon Woo-seok for Lovely Runner
Uhm Tae-goo for My Sweet Mobster
Jung Hae-in for Love Next Door
Jo Jung-suk for Captivating the King

Nominees for the TV Drama Female Lead:

Kim Ji-won for Queen of Tears
Kim Tae-ri for Jeongnyeon: The Star is Born
Kim Hye-yoon for Lovely Runner
Park Min-young for Marry My Husband
Jung Soo-min for Love Next Door

Nominees for the OTT Original Drama Male Lead:

Son Suk-ku and Choi Woo-sik for A Killer Paradox
Lee Min-ho for Pachinko Season 2
Lee Joon-hyuk for Dongjae: The Good or The Bastard

Nominees for the OTT Original Drama Female Lead:

Go Min-si for The Frog
Kim Min-ha for Pachinko Season 2
Bona and Jang Da-ah for The Pyramid Game
Chun Woo-hee for The 8 Show

One of the most highly anticipated categories is Best TV and OTT Dramas.

Nominees for the TV Drama category:

tvN's Queen of Tears
tvN's Marry My Husband
tvN's Lovely Runner
tvN's Jeongnyeon: The Star is Born
SBS' Judge from Hell

Nominees for the OTT Original Drama category

The 8 Show (Netflix)
What Comes After Love (Coupang Play)
A Killer Paradox (Netflix)
A Pyramid Game (Tving)
A Shop for Killers (Disney+)

Supporting actors are also honored in TV and OTT dramas at the award show. However, unlike the male and female leads, the category of supporting actors is not divided based on gender.

Nominees for Supporting Actors in TV dramas include:

Kwon Bo-ah and Lee Yi-kyung for Marry My Husband
Song Gun-hee for Lovely Runner
Shin Ye-eun and Jung Eun-chae for Jeongnyeon: The Star is Born

OTT Dramas:

Kim Min for A Killer Paradox
Ryu Da-in for The Pyramid Game
Moon Geun-young for Hellbound Season 2
Lee Hee-joon for A Killer Paradox
Jung Eun-chae for Pachinko Season 2

The FUNdex Awards 2024: Nominees for the variety show, mini-series, TV music/dance competition, and more

This unique formatted award show also takes into account TV Steady Variety Shows (long-going shows) such as ENA/SBS Plus I Am SOLO. Other than that, MBC's I Live Alone, SBS' Running Man, tvN's You Quiz on the Block, and JTBC's Strongest Baseball have been nominated for this category.

Mnet's Street Fighter and I-LAND2, TV CHOSUN's Miss Trot 3, MBN's King of Singer of Korea and Japan, and MBN's Current King are nominated for the category of TV music/dance competition entertainment category in the FUNdex Awards.

Netflix's Black and White Chef: Culinary Class War, Tving's EXchage 3, and more are nominated for the OTT Original Show category. Culinary Class War's Kwon Sung-jun, Baek Jong-won, Ahn Sung-jae, Edward Lee, and Choi Hyun-seok are nominated for the OTT original show performer category.

The Frog's Go Min-si is also nominated for the category of TV variety performer for Jinny's Kitcher 2. She has also been nominated for the OTT drama female lead position.

JTBC also reported that Good Data Corporation, a K-content competitiveness analysis agency, will be organizing this year's FUNdex Awards with the sponsorship of Megazone Cloud and PENTACLE. The award ceremony will be held on December 19 at 2 PM KST and live-streamed on YouTube.

The FUNdex 2024 award winners from each category will be announced in early December. During the ceremony on December 19, only the FUNdex Work Grand Prize and FUNdex Performer Gand Prize will be announced.

About the author

Harshita Mahajan holds a B.A. degree in Political Science from Delhi University and an M.A. in International Affairs from Jindal Global University. Her love for writing, interest in different cultures, and fondness for K-pop have driven her toward a career as a pop culture writer.

In her work, Harshita values accuracy, relevancy, and ethics, believing that confirming stories from multiple sources, staying on top of trends, and maintaining mindfulness are key to responsible reporting. With 2-month internships at CLAWS, EICBI, and Wion, Harshita has gained valuable experience, though she is still relatively new to the professional world.

Harshita's passion for K-pop is evident, as she has been a fan of NCT 127 for six years and actively follows K-pop trends on Twitter and YouTube. Additionally, Harshita is self-learning Korean, holds a certificate from IGNOU, and is planning to take the Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK) soon.

Harshita admires artists like Tinashe, Doja Cat, and Beyoncé for their 'holistic' approach to performing, where they excel in singing, dancing, and stage presence, delivering performances that leave a lasting impact. Outside of writing, Harshita is an enthusiast of International Relations and Geopolitics, enjoys learning about different cultures, languages, and cuisines, and loves to dance.

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Edited by Rachith Rao