Originally a dancer at the Pyongyang Art Troupe (now the Mansudae Art Troupe), she started acting in 1979, appearing in films like A Broad Bellflower and The Nation and Destiny, winning the Best Acting Award at the 1st and 2nd Pyongyang International Film Festival, and gaining a national reputation as a cinema star.

[1] Her father O Hyang-mun was an actor from Jeongok-eup [ko], a town in Yeoncheon County (now in South Korea), with a North Korean defector connected to the cinema of North Korea informing Yonhap News Agency that the younger O had originally suffered prejudice due to her South Korean ancestry.

[3][4] Afterwards, she joined the April 25 Film Studio in 1979 and started working in acting, with her debut in Gun Salute (1980).

[1] Yonhap News Agency called her "North Korea's top actress",[3] with the Choson Film Yearbook calling her "a comrade who kindly guides the audience to the film world by her elegant and delicate expression, clear voice, and passion.

[1][3] She was interred at the Patriotic Martyrs' Cemetery,[4] with Kim Jong Il himself giving her grave a wreath in her memory.