'Squid Game' 's O Yeong-su Makes History as First Korean Actor to Win a Golden Globe

A Squid Game favorite just made history.

On Sunday, Yeong-su won a Golden Globe for his role in the hit Netflix series, making him the first Korean actor to ever win a Golden Globe since the awards show began in 1944 — the same year the actor was born.

The 77-year-old actor who played 001 (name Oh Il-nam) was awarded best performance by a supporting actor in a series, limited series or television movie at the Golden Globes Sunday night. He beat out a list of other impressive supporting actors, including: Billy Crudup and Mark Duplass (The Morning Show), Kieran Culkin (Succession) and Brett Goldstein (Ted Lasso.)

Yeong-su's character — an elderly man with a comedic spirit — quickly became a fan favorite in the series, which follows 456 contestants as they compete in a series of violent adaptations of children's games to potentially absolve their debt.

Not only is the award Yeong-su's first major award (and South Korea's first Golden Globe) but it's his first nomination. "While O Yeong-su is a respected stage actor in his native South Korea, his Globe nod is his first ever nomination in a major awards show," the Golden Globes website says.

Yeong-su was not there to accept the award, as the 2022 Golden Globes ceremony was very different from years past. The event didn't air on television as usual due to a call for more diversity within the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. In 2021, the Time's Up movement pointed out the HFPA had no Black voting members on its board. Due to this, NBC decided not to air the program until internal changes brought more diversity to the program.

Still, the 2022 awards went on, just without a television appearance and without celebrities present.

Yeong-su isn't the only thing about the series that's made history. Squid Game became the most-streamed series on Netflix ever with 111 million views shortly after airing. It surpassed Bridgerton as the most-watched Netflix series in 2021.

With so much success, season 2 of Squid Game is expected, though there's no official word on what Netflix will do next. The show's creator, Hwang Dong-hyuk, revealed he's currently talking about both season 2 and 3 of Squid Game with Netflix. "I'm in talks with Netflix over season 2 as well as season 3," the 50-year-old said in conversation with Korea Times. "We will come to a conclusion any time soon."

Netflix confirmed this in a statement to TV Line. "It's true that we are discussing a wide variety of possibilities for Squid Game, including the production of a Season 3, but nothing has yet been set in stone."