Samija, 86, Launches YouTube Channel After 60 Years in Korean Acting

On Tuesday, August 5, 2026, 86-year-old veteran Korean actress Samija (Sa Mi-ja) opened her YouTube channel “Not Omija, Samija” alongside her 89-year-old husband, Kim Gwan-su, marking a new chapter more than 60 years after she first appeared on Korean television. The debut came after years of serious health setbacks — including heart attack, stroke, and a recent fall — and has since drawn wide attention, including an August 19 video recalling a childhood encounter with Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Jae-yong and an August 21 phone interview with Yonhap.

Editor’s note: This article draws on Yonhap News Agency coverage (August 21, 2026), Sandbox Network and Star News announcements (August 3–5), and follow-up reporting from Sports Chosun, Maeil Business, MoneyToday, and MK (August 6–21, 2026). Subscriber counts and video metrics may change after publication.

What happened on August 5

Samija’s channel went live on August 5 at 6 p.m. KST, produced in partnership with Sandbox Network. The first upload, titled in Korean along the lines of “Could They Be Dating? — Channel Launch of a Bickering 63-Year Marriage,” documents the couple setting up the account themselves.

In the video, Samija introduces herself as a longtime actress and says that after more than six decades in broadcasting, sitting idle lately feels lonely. She and Kim Gwan-su — married 63 years — bicker gently over smartphones and YouTube settings; production staff said the setup alone took about two hours, a detail that became part of the episode’s humor.

Detail	Information
Channel name	Not Omija, Samija (Korean: Omija malgo Samija) — a pun on the actress’s name and omija, the schisandra berry
Launch date	August 5, 2026
Format	Senior lifestyle content: marriage stories, industry memories, daily life
Production partner	Sandbox Network
First guest	Fellow veteran actress Kim Young-ok, featured in a second upload

Sandbox Network described the project as lifestyle entertainment aimed at cross-generational appeal, built around Samija’s long marriage and candid on-camera chemistry with her husband.

Six decades on screen — and why YouTube now

Samija was born in 1940. She entered the industry in 1963 as a voice actor in the first recruiting class of Donga Broadcasting, then moved into acting in 1966 as an exclusive talent for TBC (Tongyang Broadcasting Company), a predecessor network linked to the Samsung group.

Over a career spanning film, television, and stage, she became one of Korea’s best-known senior performers. In recent years, however, fewer acting roles left her wanting a direct line to audiences.

“I’ve been in broadcasting for more than 60 years, so just resting these days feels sad.”

That frank admission, repeated across her launch videos and the August 21 Yonhap interview, frames YouTube less as a celebrity side project and more as a way to keep working and connecting. Samija told Yonhap she has returned to a “beginner’s mindset” as a creator and pledged to treat the channel with the seriousness of a newcomer asking viewers to subscribe and like her videos.

Health crises and a public comeback

Samija’s debut also served to address long-running concern about her condition:

Period	Health issue
2005	Myocardial infarction (heart attack)
2018	Cerebral infarction (stroke)
Early 2026	Fall in March; seen walking with a cane, fueling speculation
August 2026	Says she has stopped using the cane — what Korean media called “graduating from the cane”

In the August 5 launch video, she asked viewers to set aside earlier worries: she was walking without a cane and wanted to focus on moving forward with hope. Reactions online mixed admiration for her resilience with reminders to prioritize rest — a tension familiar to fans of aging public figures returning to demanding work.

Kim Gwan-su, a KBS first-batch talent whom Samija has called her first love, appeared on set with flowers to support her. The couple have two sons and one daughter.

Lee Jae-yong anecdote drives second wave of attention

Coverage intensified again on August 19–20 after Samija recounted meeting Lee Jae-yong — now chairman of Samsung Electronics — when he was a third-year middle school student.

Samija explained that as a TBC exclusive, she was often invited to Samsung events and parties. At one gathering, she said, a teenage Lee arrived with younger siblings including Lee Boo-jin, now president of Hotel Shilla. She remembered him as strikingly handsome, face flushed, tightly holding his sisters’ hands — an image she said she still carries with “motherly affection.”

Her husband added context in the same video: TBC’s chairman favored Samija and regularly invited her to hotel birthday parties, which is how she came to attend Samsung family events. The clip spread quickly across Korean entertainment outlets on August 20–21, extending interest beyond the original launch story.

Yonhap interview: Lim Young-woong, BTS, and life as a “rookie YouTuber”

In a phone interview with Yonhap on August 21, Samija reflected on her first weeks as a creator. She highlighted meeting Kim Young-ok on camera and reiterated her Lee Jae-yong memory, but also looked forward — saying she would like to meet singers Lim Young-woong and BTS, whom she described with fond, almost parental curiosity about younger stars she admires from afar.

The interview underscored how quickly her channel moved from a launch curiosity to a platform for stories that range from conglomerate history to contemporary fandom.

What it means for senior creators in Korea

Samija joins a growing line of veteran Korean entertainers experimenting with YouTube and short-form platforms to reach audiences directly. Her case stands out for age — 86 at debut — and for the candid pairing with a nonagenarian spouse on camera.

For Sandbox Network, the project fits a broader push into senior IP: lifestyle content that treats older figures as full personalities rather than occasional guest appearances. For viewers, the appeal appears to lie in unscripted marriage banter, industry lore, and the rarity of hearing from actors who shaped decades of Korean television.

Whether the channel becomes a sustained second act or a brief but memorable coda to her career will depend on pacing, health, and how much of her archive of memories she chooses to share — questions Samija herself seemed aware of when she ended her launch appeal by asking fans to watch, and to live with hope.

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Discussion

Samija’s channel treats a 60-year career as prologue rather than epilogue — and asks audiences to show up for what comes next.

1. Should veteran performers feel obliged to keep working in public view?

Samija said idle time feels lonely after a lifetime on air. Is that a fair creative impulse, or does fame make it harder to step back quietly?

2. When public figures share health comebacks on camera, how much reassurance is enough?

She asked viewers to forget the cane and focus on hope. Where is the line between inspiring resilience and minimizing real medical risk?

If you have followed senior creators in Korea or elsewhere, what keeps you watching — the nostalgia, the marriage dynamic, or the sense that their stories would otherwise disappear?

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