Lee Min-ho (actor, born 1987)

Lee Min-ho
In August 2014
Born	(1987-06-22) June 22, 1987 Seoul, South Korea
Education	Konkuk University (B.A. Film)
Occupation	Actor, singer
Years active	2003–present
Agent	MYM Entertainment (Korea) IMX Inc. (Japan) Huayi Brothers (China)
Website	www.leeminho.kr
Korean name
Hangul	이민호
Hanja	李敏鎬
Revised Romanization	I Minho
McCune–Reischauer	Yi Min-ho

Lee Min-ho (Hangul: 이민호; Hanja: 李敏鎬, born June 22, 1987) is a South Korean actor and singer. He first gained widespread fame in Korea and parts of Asia with his role as Gu Jun-pyo in Boys Over Flowers in 2009. The role won him a Best New Actor award at the 45th Baeksang Arts Awards. He is noted for his leading role in City Hunter (2011) and The Heirs (2013). In 2015, he starred in his first leading role in film with Gangnam Blues, followed by his first China-produced film Bounty Hunters (2016). In 2016, he starred in the television series The Legend of the Blue Sea.

The success of Lee's television dramas throughout Asia established him as a top Hallyu star.

Early life and education

Lee was born in Heukseok-dong, Dongjak-gu, Seoul. As a child, Lee had hoped to become a professional football player. He was selected for the youth football class of South Korean manager and former professional player Cha Bum-Kun, but an injury in the 5th grade of elementary school put an end to this aspiration.^[1] In his second year of high school, Lee turned to acting.

He majors in Film & Art at Konkuk University.^[1]

Career

2006–2008: Beginnings

Lee started auditioning and landed minor roles in several television dramas such as Nonstop 5 and Recipe of Love. His official debut role was in an EBS series, Secret Campus (2003).^[2] Early in his career Lee went by the stage name Lee Min because his agency thought his birth name was too ordinary. However, as his stage name was pronounced and written (Hangul) in the same way as the Korean word imin, which means "immigration", it made it hard for him to show up on internet search results. He eventually went back to using his original name.^[3]

In 2006, his acting career was put on hold for a year following a serious car accident, while riding with fellow actor Jung Il-woo. Lee was severely injured and spent several months bedridden.^[1] Upon recovery, Lee received his first leading role in the high-school drama Mackerel Run in 2007, but the series was reduced to only eight episodes due to low viewership ratings.^[4] In 2008 he appeared in various roles on television (dramas Get Up and I Am Sam) and two movies, Public Enemy Returns and Our School's E.T.. During the shooting of the latter he became good friends with actor Kim Su-ro, who later praised him on a variety show: "I recognize a star when I see one. When I was doing Our School's E.T., I knew that Lee Min-ho would become one of the top actors in the country".^[5]

2009–2012: Breakthrough

In December 2012

Lee's breakthrough came in 2009 with the lead role of Gu Jun-pyo in KBS's Boys Over Flowers, the Korean adaptation of the popular Japanese television drama Hana Yori Dango, which was based on the popular Shōjo manga Boys Over Flowers (花より男子 Hana Yori Dango). Competition for the leading role was very intense and Lee only got to know he was cast from the newspapers.^[6] The series attracted high viewership ratings and buzz throughout South Korea during its broadcast,^[7] and created another Korean Wave throughout Asia which made Lee a household name and Hallyu star.^[8][9] Dubbed as the 20 billion won CF King, Lee's new-found popularity gained him many endorsement deals.^[10]

In 2010, Lee starred in the romantic comedy Personal Taste, in which he played an ambitious perfectionist young architect who poses as a gay man to become roommates with a young woman, leading to romantic complications. When asked about why he chose the role during an interview he responded "I think I would do a better job playing heavy and more defined roles when I am older. I think "Personal Taste" was perfect because it is bright, cheerful but you can also laugh and cry over it as well."^[11]

In 2011, he played the titular character in action drama City Hunter, which was loosely based on Tsukasa Hojo's popular manga. The drama was a commercial success across Asia, and contributed to Lee's growing popularity, most notably in Japan, Philippines, China,^[12][13] and parts of Europe.^[14] He participated in a popular Chinese variety show Happy Camp in December 2011.^[15]

On April 6, 2012, Lee announced on his Facebook page that he would appear in a new drama called Faith. The historical/medical drama aired from August to October 2012. Despite garnering viewership ratings around the 10% range, Faith was a commercial flop due to its high budget.^[16]

2013–present: International fame

Lee released his first album "My Everything" in May 2013 and went on a fan meeting tour in Asia in cities such as Yokohama, Osaka, Shanghai, Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, Manila and Taipei.^[17][18] In April 2013 his wax figure was unveiled at the Madame Tussauds in Shanghai.^[19]

In December 2013

On March 29, 2013, Lee announced his return to television with a new drama titled The Heirs.^[20][21] Premiering on October 9, 2013,^[22] On why he decided to take on the role of a chaebol heir in high school four years after playing one in Boys Over Flowers, his answer was, "Before I grew past my 20s, I wanted to play a more upbeat character, one that would allow me to return to that feeling of simple, uncomplicated innocence that I had when I was younger."^[23] Premiering on October 9, 2013,^[24] The Heirs enjoyed immense popularity both locally, with a peak rating of 28.6%,^[25] and internationally, having over one billion hits on the Chinese streaming website iQiyi.^[26] Thanks to the drama, Lee experienced a resurgence in his popularity internationally, and was named as a top Hallyu star.^[27]

On Jan 30, 2014, Lee became the first Korean celebrity to perform on China's CCTV Lunar New Year gala.^[28] He sang a song with Harlem Yu, the original singer of the theme song of Meteor Garden, the Taiwanese version of Boys Over Flowers.^[29][30][31] The appearance has since increased his popularity in China, where he has been nicknamed "long-legged oppa" in both mainstream and social media.^[32][33] He was also invited to the third conference of the South Korean Presidential Committee for Cultural Enrichment as the representative for the entertainment industry, to share and contribute to the discussion of issues related to developing Korea's cultural content.^[34][35]

His then took on a starring role Yoo Ha's noir action film Gangnam Blues (2015), which is set in the 1970s when the real estate development boom swept across Gangnam. The movie, which co-stars Kim Rae-won, marks Lee's first leading role in a feature film.^{[36][37][38][39][40]} He subsequently recorded and released his second EP Song for You in October 2014 under Universal Music. As with his previous album, he stated that the tracks were recorded for his fans and that he had no ambition to pursue a singing career.^[41][42] The album release coincided with the start of his RE:MINHO fan meeting tour in Asian cities such as Beijing, Tokyo, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Bangkok, Shanghai and Seoul.^[43][44][45]

On 22 June 2015, Lee released a song titled "Thank You", which he penned the lyrics to. On August 2015, Lee started filming for action comedy Bounty Hunters, directed by Shin Terra, with an estimated budget of $31 million.^[46] The movie was released in July 2016, grossing 9 billion won (US$7.8 million) on its first day.^[47] In November 2015, he released the EP single "The Day", which included 2 songs.

In November 2016, Lee made his small-screen comeback in the fantasy romance drama, The Legend of the Blue Sea alongside actress Jun Ji-hyun.^[48] He will also be starring in the upcoming web drama First Seven Kisses by Lotte Duty Free.

Personal life

Lee has an older sister, Lee Yong-jung, who is also the CEO of MYM Entertainment, Lee's current label.^[3][49]

He started dating South Korean singer and actress Suzy in early 2015.^[50]

Filmography

Film

Television drama

Web series

DVD

Discography

Albums

Singles/Soundtrack contributions

Promotional songs

Awards and nominations

Others

In December 2015

Social contributions

• Honorary Ambassador for UNICEF's Love Net campaign to fight malaria (2009–2010)
• PR Ambassador for Konkuk University (2010)
• Honorary Prosecutor or basically a PR ambassador for Korean Prosecutor (2012).
• PR ambassador for the Chilean campaign "Reforestemos Patagonia" organized by Minoz Chile (2013)^[91]

In 2014, Lee set up the PROMIZ website to raise awareness and encourage donation for social and humanitarian causes.^[92][93] Proceeds from the sale of PROMIZ merchandise are given to the selected partners to execute the charity projects. The site has since raised US$50,000 from him and his fans to help create wells in Malawi through non-profit organisation Charity: Water.^[94][95]

• Public Ambassador for 'Korean Tourism Campaign', also called as 'The Face of Korean Tourism' (July 28, 2015)
• Honorary Ambassador for the '2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics' (September 25, 2015)
• PR Ambassador for Visit Korea Year 2016–2018 (November 7, 2015)

Social media

As of November 2016, Lee has 2.95 million followers on Twitter, 22.5 million and 17 million fans on Weibo and Facebook respectively.^{[96][97][98][99][100]} In 2014 and 2015 Lee topped an online poll organised by a Chinese entertainment magazine to be crowned as the "Asian Male God".^{[101][102][103]}

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lee Min-ho.

• Official Korean website (Korean)
• Official Japanese website (Japanese)