Actress Ko Ah Ra's name used to be always preceded by the 2003 debut drama, KBS 2TV's coming of age drama, "Rounds." Ko Ah Ra, who has been acting for ten years, indeed didn't have any hit dramas since the coming of age drama "Rounds."
However, she is getting rediscovered and revaluated through her role in "Reply 1994." She plays Sung Na Jung, a freshman majoring in computer science. She's a typical "fan girl" character who might be late for classes but is never late to Yeonsei University's basketball star Lee Sang Min's practices.
Ko Ah Ra has been criticized for the low ratings of her previous works. However, her seemingly uncaring, "ruined" looks in "Reply 1994" is turning the audiences' minds back to her. In addition to the natural Kyungsando dialect, her style iss a perfect resemblance of the 90s. Her teamwork with male characters such as Jung Woo, Kim Sung Gyun, and Son Ho Joon is also highly rated. Lee Woo Jung, scriptwriter for "Reply 1994," said he wanted to reflect Ko Ah Ra's actual personality of bright girl into the character. Shin Won Ho PD said, "I wanted to change the negative mainstream opinion on Ko Ah Ra, which was established just because her previous works haven't garnered much attention."