Resident Playbook cast and character guide: Who plays whom in the medial K-drama

The lives of first-year OB-GYN residents at Yulje Medical Center are chronicled in the South Korean medical drama Resident Playbook. A spin-off from the very popular Hospital Playlist, the series follows a new generation of young doctors as they start their careers in one of the hospital's most challenging and emotionally demanding departments.

Resident Playbook is about both the professional and personal challenges and development of its main characters, all of whom are experiencing the highs and lows of residency. With a combination of emotional moments, universal conflicts, and people-oriented writing, Resident Playbook provides an insider's perspective on the lives of physicians behind the scenes.

This article goes into the principal and supporting cast of characters, providing you with a rundown of the characters they play and their role in the story. A die-hard Hospital Playlist fan or a newcomer, here's everything you need to know about the Resident Playbook cast.

Go Youn-jung plays Oh Yi-young

Role: OB-GYN First-year Resident

Traits: Compassionate, confident, and capable.

Oh Yi-young is no longer an unfamiliar face in the hospital, but one doesn't try to cut her down. She is coming back from residency after failure, burdened by debt and the shame of being a repeater, which defines her character development.

Hysterical patient or crisis delivery, Oh Yi-young holds firm with compassion and strength-even as her own life begins to spiral out of control.

Shin Si-a as Pyo Nam-kyung

Role: New OB-GYN Resident

Character traits: Driven, nervous, and very competitive.

Pyo Nam-kyung is presented as a determined and high-achieving resident physician who has extremely high expectations for herself. Though she is confident in her academic abilities, she struggles with anxiety and the emotional realities of actual medical practice regularly.

Her persona also portrays the internal tension new doctors experience transitioning from the rigid walls of books to actual patient care. She learns to balance competition with cooperation and empathy as a member of the OB-GYN staff.

Kang Yoo-seok as Um Jae-il

Role: First-year OB-GYN Resident

Character traits: Calm, meticulous, and a little mysterious.

Um Jae-il is the quiet storm of the group. He listens more than he talks, and his tranquil demeanor is a counterbalance to the charged emotional landscape of OB-GYN. But throughout the series, cracks develop in the cool veneer, exposing vulnerabilities and old wounds that add surprising depth to his character.

Han Ye-ji as Kim Sa-bi

Role: First-year OB-GYN Resident

Traits: Genius, blunt, and socially awkward.

Kim Sa-bi is a medical encyclopedia in human form. Her bedside manner, however, is not as fabulous as her intellect. She's awkward with patients and worse with staff, but the entire ride is learning emotional intelligence—something med school didn't teach. Her personality is lovable and maddening.

Jung Joon-won as Ku Do-won

Role: A senior resident and Yi-young’s boyfriend

Traits: Gentle, sincere, and compassionate.

Ku Do-won is the emotional group's heart in Resident Playbook. He's just so nice, he's such an obvious sentimental, and he just has such a huge need to care for others. He may not always necessarily be flashiest or technically superior, but he can move patients in a way that makes everyone remember why they were physicians in the first place.

Supporting casts of Resident Playbook

Lee Bong-ryun is the grizzled, older mentor doctor and resident who gets the young residents back on track with boot camp and wise words.

Hong Na-hyun and Kim Hye-in as nurses and ancillary staff add a touch of reality and humanity to the hospital setting.

Guest actors appear and disappear as patients, family members, and other doctors—new challenges and learning opportunities for the residents.

The secret to why Resident Playbook works lies in the dynamic of how these characters support—and, every now and again, annoy—each other. All of them grapple with the weight of dealing with life and death while themselves trying to become better humans and medical professionals. They reflect each other's best (and worst), with friendship, rivalry, and self-betterment blended together to keep them progressing even on the most troublesome pages of hospital records.

It's not love triangles and blowing-up surgery. It's the everyday things: a rattling resident clinging to the hand of a woman in labor, or an immature doctor suturing up ER patients. The cast does it all so believably that you'll find yourself thinking that you just happened to be hanging out with them at the hospital cafeteria.

Resident Playbook isn’t just another medical drama—it’s a character-driven story about five OB-GYN residents trying to find their footing in the most vulnerable corners of medicine. Go Youn-jung, Shin Si-a, Kang Yoo-seok, Han Ye-ji, and Jung Joon-won make up a cast that’s young, talented, and deeply in tune with their characters.

If you’re wondering who’s playing whom in Resident Playbook, now you’ve got the full guide—and maybe a few more reasons to keep watching.