Kim Jinyoung graduated from School of Film of Korea National University of Arts. She directed a short film called The DNA of Taste in 2008, and a short film she directed in the following year, Trust Me, received the grand prize for the Asian Short Films Competition at the 2010 SEOUL International Women's Film Festival.

While directing short films and writing feature length screenplays, Kim became interested in fiction as a source for original stories and decided to apply to the creative writing course at KOCCA. While there, she finished her debut The House with a Yard. This work, which was universally acclaimed by the judges, is a psychological suspense novel and family thriller involving a happily married woman who becomes suspicious of her husband.