Kim's Convenience

• Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as Mr. Sang-il Kim ("Appa"). The family patriarch, Kim Sang-il was a teacher in his homeland before immigrating to Canada with his wife where they now own and operate 'Kim's Convenience', a grocery store in Toronto's Moss Park neighbourhood. Mr. Kim is traditional, proud and stubborn, practical, opinionated and blunt. He is 56 years old at the start of the series and estranged from his son Jung, a frayed relationship he gradually attempts to mend beginning in Season 2.[4]
• Jean Yoon as Mrs. Yong-mi Kim ("Umma"). The family matriarch, Kim Yong-mi, 54 at the start of the series, was also a teacher in Korea. She is hardworking and kind but also meddles in the lives of her family. Her life revolves around the store, family, and church, where she volunteers.[5]
• Andrea Bang as Janet Kim, 20 at the start of the series, Mr. and Mrs. Kim's daughter and Jung's sister. She is the family member in most frequent contact with Jung. Attending OCAD University, where she studies photography, Janet is a talented artist but is frustrated by her parents' traditionalism, their lack of support for her art, and the fact that they overparent her due to Jung's estrangement from the household.[6]
• Simu Liu as Jung Kim, 24 at the start of the series. Mr. and Mrs. Kim's son and Janet's brother. Jung works at Handy Car Rental, where he is promoted to assistant manager at the beginning of the series but returns to his former job after an attempt at moving to another company is scuttled. He was a rebellious teenager who had engaged in petty street crimes, earning him a brief stint in juvenile detention, but has since cleaned up his act. He was kicked out of the family home by Mr. Kim after stealing from him and remains estranged from his father though he is still in contact with the rest of the family, and gradually reconnects with his father over the course of the series.[7]
• Andrew Phung as Arnold "Kimchee" Han, 25 at the start of the series. Jung's best friend, co-worker, roommate, and former partner in crime. He is promoted to assistant manager after Jung initially leaves Handy Car Rental at the end of Season 2, now serving as his superior.[8]
• Nicole Power as Shannon Ross, 26. The manager of Handy Car Rental, and Jung and Kimchee's boss, she has a crush on Jung in season 1 and is often awkward in her attempts to appear cool and hip.[9]

• John Ng as Mr. Chin, Mr. Kim's friend and a successful entrepreneur, owning several businesses. Fastidious, he does not like to do manual labour. He is single with a dog named Ginger. He often treats Ginger like one would treat a significant other.
• Ben Beauchemin as Gerald Tremblay, Janet's classmate at OCAD. He is intimidated by Mr. Kim and has awkward interactions with him. He and Janet later become roommates after Janet moves out in season 2.
• Michael Musi as Terence Pepler, a mild-mannered employee at Handy Car Rental whom Kimchee inexplicably hates. He is promoted to back manager at Handy's in Season 3.
• Getenesh Berhe as Semira, one of Janet's OCAD photography classmates and friends.
• Derek McGrath as Frank, a repairman and friend of Mr. Kim's who tells pointless anecdotes while working, often reminiscing about his former wife Bernice. Mr. Kim is almost always annoyed by this.
• Soo-Ram Kim as Nayoung, Janet's cheery, popular and trendy cousin from South Korea in season 1. In season 2 she moves to Canada to attend the University of Waterloo.
• Michael Xavier as Alex Jackson, a police officer who was Jung's childhood friend and who is romantically interested in Janet.
• Sabrina Grdevich as Ms. Murray, one of Janet's professors at OCAD. She parents her five-year-old son with little discipline, and holds Janet's work in a low regard.
• Hiro Kanagawa as Pastor Choi, the pastor at Mrs. Kim's church in season 1.
• Amanda Brugel as Pastor Nina Gomez, associate pastor at Mrs. Kim's church. Becomes pastor after season 1.
• Christina Song as Mrs. Lee, Grace Lee's mother and Mrs. Kim's friend.
• Uni Park as Mrs. Park, a supercilious and well-to-do parishioner at Mrs. Kim's church who looks down on the Kims.
• Sugith Varughese as Mr. Sanjeev Mehta, a friend of Mr. Kim's who plays cards with him and owns an Indian restaurant. Mrs. Mehta calls him Sanjeev.
• Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll as Enrique, a nurse and regular customer. He considers Mr. Kim his friend, but this is unrequited.
• Tina Jung as Jeanie Park, Mrs. Park's introverted teenage daughter.
• Kris Hagen as Sketchy-Looking Dude, a regular customer who is also revealed to be a bike thief in Season 2.
• Gavin Williams as Cereal Customer, a regular customer who is frequently and inadvertently present in intense Kim family arguments.
• Marco Grazzini as Alejandro, Shannon's boyfriend beginning at the end of season 1.
• Ellora Patnaik as Mrs. Mehta, Mr. Mehta's wife and a friend of Mrs. Kim.
• Ishan Dave as Raj Mehta, the Mehta's son and Janet's boyfriend in season 2 and her ex in season 3.
• Gabriella Sundar Singh as Chelsea Chettiar, Gerald's girlfriend beginning in season 2. Moves in with Gerald and Janet in season 3.
• Akosua Amo-Adem as Stacie, one of Jung's co-workers after he returns to Handy in season 3. She is incredibly stoic and any degree of active friendliness from her is taken as strange.
• Ziad Ek as Omar, one of Jung's co-workers after he returns to Handy in season 3.
• Lara Arabian as Mrs. Ada, a regular customer, and the matriarch of a new immigrant family. She briefly works for the Kims as a cleaner in Season 3.
• Kayla Lorette as Dree Davis, Janet's popular classmate at OCAD.
• Soma Chhaya as Divya, Raj's fiancé in Season 3. Raj breaks off their engagement near the end of the season in the hopes of winning Janet back, whom he still has feelings for.

Interior scenes at the store, Handy Car Rental and home are shot at Showline Studios at 901 Lake Shore Boulevard East, where an exact replica of Mimi Variety, the model for the store, has been recreated. The studio is also used as the exterior of the car rental business. One episode was shot in Koreatown at Bloor and Christie Streets. The long established "Mimi Variety" store at 252 Queen Street East is used for exterior shots and as the model for the interior set built in the studio. While the signage has been adjusted, the "Kim's Convenience" sign uses the same red and green lettering and all other sections, such as the "7 DAYS A WEEK", are the original signage of Mimi Variety.[10] The producers also painted a mural on an exterior wall, mostly seen in the credit sequence and for stock transitional shots as well as for promotional shots. The owners of the store have retained the new signage although the business has not officially changed its name.[10][11]

The show was released to mostly positive reception from critics. The first season holds a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 12 critics' reviews.[14] John Doyle of The Globe and Mail wrote that the show "stays away from the pseudo-seriousness that could easily plague a comedy about immigrants and family dynamics." In conclusion, Doyle called it "a clever, generally engaging screwball comedy with an eye on entertainment".[15] The Toronto Star's Tony Wong wrote that "the show is good. Possibly even great. The dialogue is sharp, on point and borderline subversive. It has the potential to be a future classic. It has bite...It’s funny and true, but not a reality we typically see reflected on television."[16] Reviewing the series following its release for US audiences on Netflix, Bryan Washington of Vulture remarked on the series' treatment of political issues surrounding immigrants, noting the tensions are never truly in the background but also do not take precedence over the comedy, remarking "I haven’t laughed as hard all year, with feeling, as I have alongside the series."[17]

Rick Salutin, also of the Star, was less enthusiastic of the show's portrayal of minorities on television saying "only accents are funny in Kim's Convenience" and that audiences are "laughing at the characters not with them". Salutin concluded by stating "I don't see why supporting Canadian culture means you should be uncritical, as if someone will take it away if you weren't. You should be most critical about what you care most about like public education or the CBC, you want them to be good not just there".[18] Although not directly a response to Salutin's review, actor Paul Sun-Hyung Lee (Appa) has questioned critics' inclination to cite accents as offensive: "They won’t say—but is it because you’re seeing Asians on the screen? Oh, no? Well, then it must be because he sounds different. Well, guess what: Asian people have accents. The accent isn’t about a joke, it’s part of who that character is, but it doesn’t make it intrinsically racist. If you’re uncomfortable with that baggage, then you need to examine it yourself and see where it comes from."[19]

Mark Breslin, founder of the Canadian comedy club chain Yuk Yuk's, was critical of the show's lack of strong humour, saying "As a sitcom, it’s more sit than com. It’s pleasant to watch but just not that funny. The characters aren’t exaggerated enough. They lack big comic flaws. The conflicts are subtle and minor key. You want to give its creators kudos for finally putting Asians on TV in the right way, but the whole enterprise plays like a civics lesson. The characters all behave with dignity, and dignity may be the enemy of laughter."[20]

Midway through its first season, Kim's Convenience was estimated by Numeris to have an average audience of 933,000 per episode, with 39% of viewers between the ages of 25 and 54.[21]

For the 5th Canadian Screen Awards in 2017, Kim's Convenience garnered 11 nominations, including Best Comedy Series, Best Actor in a Comedy Series (Lee), Best Actress in a Comedy Series (Yoon and Bang), and Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series (Phung).[22] Lee won the award for best actor in a continuing leading comedic role for his portrayal of Appa,[23] and Phung won Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Kimchee.[24]

Kim's Convenience won two awards at the 2017 Toronto ACTRA Awards, Outstanding Performance - Female for actress Jean Yoon and the Members’ Choice Series Ensemble Award for Best Cast.[25][26]

The first-season episodes "Ddong Chim" and "Janet’s Photos" are 2017 Writers Guild of Canada's Canadian Screenwriting Awards finalists in the TV comedy category.[27]

At the 6th Canadian Screen Awards in 2018, the series received 12 nominations. It won the awards for Best Comedy Series, Best Actor in a Comedy Series (Lee) and Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series (Phung).

As the show's third season aired in the winter of 2019 rather than the fall of 2018, it did not air inside the eligibility period for the 7th Canadian Screen Awards.