LE SSERAFIM's Huh Yunjin, KATSEYE, CORTIS, and Actress Ha Yerin Join Variety's Most Influential Young Stars of 2026

Variety dropped its 2026 Young Hollywood Impact Report on the 4th (local time), and four Korean and Korean-heritage acts earned a spot: LE SSERAFIM's Huh Yunjin, girl group KATSEYE, boy group CORTIS, and Korean-Australian actress Ha Yerin. Three of the four are HYBE artists, a concentration that says something about how thoroughly the label group has positioned itself across the next generation of global entertainment.

The annual report identifies musicians, actors, content creators, and athletes between the ages of 18 and 28 who Variety believes will shape the entertainment industry going forward. This year's full list also includes pop artists Gracie Abrams, Olivia Dean, and Zara Larsson.

Huh Yunjin received one of the more specific write-ups. Variety described her as "not just a member of LE SSERAFIM, but a songwriter and the creative backbone shaping the team's direction." The description holds up: she contributed to 8 of the 11 tracks on the group's second studio album PUREFLOW pt. 1, released in May. When asked what comes next, she kept it grounded: "I want to protect what is most essentially LE SSERAFIM."

KATSEYE, the multinational girl group launched through HYBE America and Geffen Records, was called "one of the best girl groups in contemporary pop music." Variety pointed specifically to two performance moments: their slot at the 68th Grammy Awards in February, where they performed their 2025 single "Gnarly" as a Best New Artist nominee, and a headlining set at Coachella in April. The members reflected on the experience with a kind of honest disbelief, saying they had watched festivals and awards shows since childhood for artistic inspiration and still couldn't quite believe they were now the ones on those stages. Their third EP, WILD, is due out on the 14th.

CORTIS, signed to Big Hit Music, the same HYBE label that is home to BTS, were introduced as "a new K-pop star group and a highly skilled act." The numbers back that up: their second mini-album GREENGREEN, released in May, debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, and their first world tour across nine cities has sold out every date. By most metrics, they are the strongest-performing boy group to debut within the last five years. The five members told Variety they want to keep growing while staying recognizably themselves: "Even as our music style and sound develop, we hope people can still immediately recognize us as CORTIS."

HYBE noted in a statement that having multiple artists from different labels within its multi-label system recognized in the same report reflects the group's strategy of letting each label operate independently with its own identity, rather than forcing a single sound across the roster.

The fourth honoree, Ha Yerin, arrives from a different corner of the industry. The Korean-Australian actress and granddaughter of veteran Korean actress Son Suk landed the lead role of Sophie Beckett in Netflix's Bridgerton Season 4, playing a young woman determined to find small moments of joy despite the constraints of her social position. Variety wrote that audiences "fully embraced Sophie through Ha Yerin's performance," noting her character's quiet resolve. She is currently in production on Bridgerton Season 5 and spoke openly about what she wants her career to become: "I hope the next chapter involves more work that sparks deeper discourse and isn't afraid to look at the darker sides of human experience."

It's a notably wide range of recognition for a single report cycle, spanning K-pop songwriting, multinational pop performance, boy group global reach, and prestige streaming drama. The common thread is a generation of Korean and Korean-heritage artists who are no longer being discovered by Western media so much as already operating at its center.