Joo Won-gyu (; born 1975) is a South Korean novelist, screenwriter, and pastor.
He serves as the director of the Institute for Shared Culture, focusing on everyday art, cultural discoveries, and small-group Bible studies. Best known for his socially conscious fiction and crime dramas, Joo won the 14th Hankyoreh Literary Award for his novel A Cruel History of an Outsider Race. His other notable novels include Bad God, The Watchtower, Anti-Human Declaration, and A Christmas Carol, alongside youth fiction such as Hideout. His non-fiction works span essays, cultural criticism—such as Sanctuary and Babel—and theological studies, including translating The Talmud closest to the original source as a researcher of Jewish texts.
As a screenwriter, he wrote the 2017 tvN drama series Argon and Disney+ Gangnam B-Side. Since 2017, he has been represented by the writer's agency Writer of Finecut (WAF).
Early life Joo was born in 1975 in Seoul to a devout Buddhist mother, though he converted to Christianity during his third year of elementary school. His adolescence involved significant turbulence. During middle school, he became a target of school bullies and was forced into the role of a "bread shuttle." To protect himself, he aligned with a group of delinquents and became a subordinate to the school gang leader. His teenage years involved frequent disciplinary issues, to the point where school authorities ultimately recommended that he drop out.
His entry into literature began modestly. Joo began writing novels at age eighteen in high school, receiving encouraging feedback from peers that inspired him to continue. Despite this early passion, he initially pursued a technical path, enrolling in engineering school. However, he felt continually drawn back to writing by a persistent personal momentum.
Joo majored in electrical engineering at Seoul National University of Science and Technology. He spent his time isolating himself in the library to read books outside his major, eventually dropping out because the field did not align with his goals. After attending three or four different theological colleges, he completed his studies at a seminary affiliated with the General Assembly and was ordained as a minister in March 2009. He eventually settled into ministry, serving as a pastor who runs an alternative church..
In 2003, one of his short stories won the New Year Literary Contest held by the Gwangju Daily News, though he maintained an independent path without formal ties to the literary establishment. He later published System, a political thriller novel centered around the internet.
Career
As writer Joo Won-kyu won the 14th Hankyoreh Literary Award in 2009 for his novel A Cruel History of an Outsider Race, beating 211 competitors. From the preliminary judging stages, the work received praise for its bold settings, compelling characters, and provocative themes. The judges noted that Joo appeared to operate outside the traditional university creative writing establishment. While they identified flaws such as rough prose and structural echoes of films and video games, they concluded these did not diminish his narrative competence or the raw energy of the book, prompting the panel to remark, "I wonder who this person is."
That same year, Joo was ordained as a minister and founded a church, beginning a tenure in pastoral leadership that lasted seven years. Following his literary debut, he maintained a prolific output across multiple genres, including full-length novels, cultural criticism, autobiographies, interviews, youth novels, and fairy tales, publishing more than twenty books. Drawing on his academic background in engineering, he has also occasionally worked as an electrician.
In 2012, following the unexpected death of his wife, Joo began ministering to out-of-school youth in shelters and correctional facilities. His wife had dedicated herself to supporting runaway youth prior to their marriage, and after her passing, he chose to honor and continue her legacy.
In 2015, after losing contact with twenty runaway teenagers he had previously counseled, Joo tracked them to a nightclub district in Gangnam. To locate them, he spent six months working undercover inside a Gangnam club, eventually reconnecting with most of the youths. He discovered that many of the young men were working as guards or hosts, while most of the young women were trapped in prostitution. Despite his intervention, he was unable to convince them to leave. Joo concluded his undercover operation after six months, grappling with a sense of failure for not being able to reintegrate the teenagers into mainstream society. Exposed to daily criminality, he began to feel psychologically compromised by the environment and concluded he had to leave immediately. On February 28, he published an account of his experiences in the novel Made in Gangnam, released by Neofiction.
As screenwriter In 2017, Joo co-wrote the tvN journalism drama Argon alongside Jeon Young-shin and Shin Ha-eun. Directed by Lee Yoon-jung and starring Kim Joo-hyuk and Chun Woo-hee, the series follows investigative reporters striving to uncover the truth through verifiable facts in a media landscape saturated with misinformation. Since 2017, Joo has been represented by the writer's agency Writer of Finecut (WAF).
On December 7, 2022, at the Yong Film Night event, it was announced that veteran director Kim Jee-woon and director Park Bo-ram would co-direct an OTT series tentatively titled Mangnaein, adapted from the crime novel Second Sister by Hong Kong author Chan Ho-kei. The series is produced by Yong Film in collaboration with Anthology Studio and SK Global. In 2023, Joo announced via social media that he serves as the screenwriter for the adaptation.
Bibliography
Novel YearTitlePublisherPublished DateISBN English Korean 2009 System Lightning Rod Books 2009-04-10 A Cruel History of an Outsider Race Hankyoreh Publishing House2009-07-15 2010 Invincible bad baseball team Saeum2010-01-15 The Watchtower Literature of Literature 2010-07-31 2011 The Palace of Fire 2011-12-08 2012 Anti-human Declaration Consonants and Vowels 2012-01-03 2015 Door of Memory Hankyoreh Publishing House 2015.03.16. 2016 Christmas Carol Consonants and Vowels 2016-12-20 2017 Saimdang, Drawing Longing Humanities Academy 2017-01-25 Bad God New 2017-09-20 2019 Made in Gangnam Neofiction 2019-02-25 One Kiss Missing Seo Yoojae 2019-10-30 Anti-human Declaration Consonants and Vowels 2019-11-07 2020Persons subject to special managementHankyoreh Publishing House 2020-02-26 2021To people who don't know me 2021-06-10 2022Seocho-dong League Neofiction 2022-01-25 2023Naked Body Floating 2023-03-10
Audio books YearTitleProducerPublication Date English Korean 2021Talmud: Today, like the first day, like the last day Mari Books 2021-08-02
Filmography Film +Film creditYearTitleCredited as English Korean Original WriterScreenwriterCreator 2022 Christmas Carol 2023 Asura: The War of the Beehair
Series +Series(s) creditYearTitleNetworkCredited as English Korean Original Writer Screenwriter Creator 2017Argon tvN 2019 The Lies Within OCN 2024 Gangnam B-Side Disney+ 2026 Unfriend TVING
Awards and nominations + Awards and nominations received by JooAward ceremonyYearCategoryNominee / WorkResult 2000 Essay Architecture as a Function of Judgment Gwangju Daily Literary Award 2006 Short Story Knife 2009 Novel A Cruel History of an Outsider Race
See also South Korean Screenwriter
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