She gained public attention for starring in television series Dong Yi (2010), Moon Embracing the Sun (2012), May Queen (2012), Golden Rainbow (2013), Secret Door (2014) and Angry Mom (2015).

[23] In 2014, Kim's performance as a teenage bully in Thread of Lies drew critical acclaim and she was nominated for the Best New Actress in Blue Dragon Film Awards.

[24] She next played a traditional funeral singer (or "gok-bi") in the single-episode Drama Special anthology,[25] and was cast in the horror mystery Room 731, an English-language graduate thesis film by USC filmmaker Kim Young-min.

[29] The same year, she reprised her role as a cat-turned-woman in Love Cells, a two-season web series adapted from the webtoon of the same title and played a murderer's daughter in the thriller film Circle of Atonement.

[30][31] In August 2016, Kim starred in her first adult leading role in the youth historical drama Love in the Moonlight as Hong Ra-on - a girl who was raised as a boy and eventually became a eunuch of Crown Prince of Joseon, played by Park Bo-gum.

[40] In 2020, Kim was cast in the romantic-comedy drama, Backstreet Rookie, alongside Ji Chang-wook, based on a webtoon of the same name and played the role of a former high school troublemaker who becomes a part-time employee at a convenience store.

[44] In December 2020, Kim was confirmed as the female lead role in the historical-fantasy drama Lovers of the Red Sky adapted from the novel written by Jung Eun-gwol.

The drama premiered in August 2021 on SBS TV[45] and Kim played the titular role of Hong Chun-gi, the Joseon dynasty's only female painter, alongside Ahn Hyo-seop as Ha Ram, a blind astrologer.

[51][52][53] In 2022, Kim reunited with the director and cast members of Love in the Moonlight in the TVING travel entertainment program Young Actors' Retreat.

[57] She played the role of Viola de Lesseps, the daughter of a wealthy merchant, who disguises herself as a man named Thomas Kent to become a theater actress, which was taboo for women at the time.

[59][60][61] In March, she made a special appearance in Jason Kim's film My Heart Puppy as Ah-min, a disabled girl who looks after abandoned dogs.

She portrayed the character Choi Min-ah, the daughter of a company president, she becomes embroiled in a comedic mishap when she mistakenly believes a new machine is designed to alleviate her fatigue and accidentally turns into a chicken nugget.

[66] On August 26, 2010, Kim joined the "Kiss of Love" campaign which sold products produced by Seoul Social Welfare Community Chest of Korea using celebrities lip marks, autographs, and caricatures to support the self-reliance and child education of low-income families.

[77] On November 23, Kim's attractive pictorials were revealed of her volunteer work, participating in fashion magazine Elle's signature charity project Share Happiness.

Kim tried to convey her true feelings in a handwritten letter, and exerted a good influence to pay a lot of attention after the construction of the Lou Gehrig Care Hospital.

[83][84][85] In April 2019, Kim made donations to help residents in affected areas caused by the first-ever large forest fire in Gangwon Province.

[88] On October 27, ChildFund Korea revealed that Kim has become the 229th patron of the Green Noble Club, which is composed of individuals who have donated a large sum of at least ₩100,000,000 (approximately $88,511).

[91] In October, it was discovered that Kim donated a total of ₩100 million to the Elderly Support Center and the Green Umbrella Hansarang Village last month without mentioning her agency during the process.

[106] In 2012, following her appearance in Moon Embracing the Sun, she became an advertising model for Domino's Pizza with Kim Soo-hyun,[107] appeared in a washing machine advertisement for Samsung Electronics with Han Ga-in,[108] became the face of a dairy product by Seoul Milk with Yeo Jin-goo[109] and featured in a video game commercial for Nintendo 3DS with Kim So-hyun.

[117][118] In January 2022, Kim featured in a 7-minute-long commercial video named Dark Farm for Laneige's Radian-C Cream, which recorded 1.45 million views within 10 days of its release.