Meet Chloe Park, the 12-Year-Old Who Plays Bridgerton 4's Lead as a Child

Chloe Park was sitting in a car when she got the news that she had been cast in Bridgerton Season 4, and she nearly lost her breath. "I was so happy I couldn't breathe," the 12-year-old Korean-British actress recalled in an interview at the Yonhap News Agency offices in Seoul on August 3. "I only found out later just how huge the show was, but even then, the idea that I was part of something set in British history, it gave me goosebumps."

The role places her inside one of Netflix's most-watched period dramas. Bridgerton 4 cast Korean-Australian actress Ha Ye-rin, granddaughter of veteran Korean stage actress Son Sook, as the female lead, Sophie Baek. Chloe, born in London to Korean parents, plays Sophie as a child.

In the story, young Sophie navigates the cruelty of a stepmother while trying to hold herself together on the surface. Chloe described the emotional challenge of the role with more precision than most child actors manage. "At first I tried to show the excitement of having a mother figure," she said. "But slowly Sophie realizes the stepmother doesn't want her. The hardest part was keeping that bright exterior while letting the hurt show underneath."

She did get a brief moment on set with Ha Ye-rin, the actress playing her adult counterpart. The two exchanged greetings, and Chloe said the encounter felt surreal in the best sense. "I actually got to see the person who would be playing my grown-up self," she said. "It was genuinely exciting."

Chloe's path to Bridgerton began five years ago, when she was seven, appearing in O Night Divine, a short film produced by global fashion brand Zara for a Christmas campaign. She says what caught her immediately was the chance to become someone else and to meet new people on set, a motivation that has held steady since. More recently, she appeared in a North American advertising campaign for Marriott Bonvoy, one of the official sponsors of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North America, representing a Korean family. She described that as a point of particular pride.

Child actors who land international projects at this scale are still rare, and Chloe's trajectory, from a branded short film to a World Cup sponsor campaign to one of Netflix's flagship shows, reflects how a small number of young performers, particularly those who are fluent across cultural contexts, are beginning to move through global productions more fluidly than their predecessors could.

She is currently spending about a month of summer holiday in Korea before returning to the UK to resume school and auditions. Her longer-term plan includes studying psychology, which she sees as useful for understanding characters from the inside. The goal she names is specific: to be what she calls an "all-rounder", someone who can handle a tense thriller role just as convincingly as a shy, quiet character. Anne Hathaway is her reference point.

"Dream big," she said, addressing other young actors who share her ambitions, "and expect the unexpected."