After starring in her first leading role in television series Listen to My Heart (2011), she became notable for Full House Take 2 (2012), Secret Love (2013), Kill Me, Heal Me (2015), She Was Pretty (2015), The Undateables (2018), Mystic Pop-up Bar (2020), and The Escape of the Seven (2023–2024).

[3][4] Hwang appeared as a recurring guest on the variety show Love Letter from 2004 to 2006, in which her onscreen pairing with singer Kim Jong-min became popular.

[16] In February, 2010, Hwang hosted MBC's Star Dance Battle alongside Kim Shin-young, Oh Sang-jin, and Shin Bong-sun.

Later that year in December, she was one of the co-hosts of the annual music program SBS Gayo Daejeon with Super Junior's Kim Hee-chul, CNBLUE's Jung Yong-hwa, and 2AM's Jo Kwon.

[11] Between 2010 and 2012, she starred in the 1970s historical epic Giant,[18][19] melodrama romance Listen to My Heart,[20] medical drama Golden Time, and romantic comedy Full House Take 2.

[12][27] In the same year, she starred in the hit melodrama crime series Secret Love, which achieved high TV viewership ratings.

[44] She then reunited with Namkoong Min in the 2018 romantic comedy The Undateables, with whom she had starred alongside seven years ago in Listen to My Heart.

[48] In 2022, Hwang accepted an offer to star in well-known screenwriter Kim Soon-ok's upcoming 2023 SBS crime mystery drama The Escape of the Seven.

[55] On December 8, 2015, Hwang's agency, C-JeS Entertainment, confirmed that she had been dating Lee Young-don, a professional golfer and businessman, for the past four months.

[62] On July 9, 2021, her agency, C-JeS Entertainment, announced that Hwang and her husband had resolved their conflict during their divorce mediation and that the two had decided to remain as a married couple.