Lee Bo-young is a South Korean actress.
She is best known for starring in the television dramas Man from the Equator, My Daughter Seo-young
and I Can Hear Your Voice.
Career Lee Bo-young won the Miss Korea beauty pageant
in Daejeon and the surrounding South Chungcheong Province in 2000.
Having majored in Korean literature at Seoul Women's University, she originally dreamed
of becoming a news presenter.
She was one of 15 finalists in MBC's annual recruitment drive in 2002, but ended up not
getting the job.
Instead, she turned to modeling, and was chosen as the exclusive advertising model for Asiana
Airlines, considered a gateway to stardom.
Lee made her acting debut in 2003, and among her early roles was in People of the Water
Flower Village opposite Song Il-gook, and as the antagonist in Save the Last Dance for
Me.
In 2005, Lee played her first leading role in the daily drama My Sweetheart, My Darling,
followed by the Silla-set historical epic Ballad of Seo Dong with Jo Hyun-jae.
She spent the next several years in television dramas — Mr. Goodbye with Ahn Jae-wook,
Queen of the Game with Joo Jin-mo, and Becoming a Billionaire with Ji Hyun-woo — but none
struck a chord with audiences or critics.
After playing the love interest in My Brother and A Dirty Carnival, Lee was cast in her
first major big screen role in Once Upon a Time.
The heist comedy is set during colonial rule in the 1940s, and she and Park Yong-woo played
notorious swindlers out to steal a diamond from the Japanese army.
Her two films released in 2009 were both melodramas.
In More Than Blue, Kwon Sang-woo played a terminally ill man who selflessly marries
off his soulmate to an eligible doctor, but the tragedy is undercut with a poetic sparseness.
While in the ironically titled I Am Happy, Lee played a nurse who falls for a patient
in the psychiatric ward, and in each other they find consolation to see them through
their harsh and miserable reality.
Lee returned to television in 2010, playing a seductress in the quirky cable drama Harvest
Villa opposite Shin Ha-kyun.
She then had a guest arc as the president's daughter on spy series Athena: Goddess of
War, followed by post-divorce romance Hooray for Love with Lee Tae-sung, and revenge drama
Man from the Equator with Uhm Tae-woong.
She then played the titular character in My Daughter Seo-young, a career woman who is
angry at her father, whose gambling addiction led to her mother's death, yet she struggles
to keep the family together and make ends meet.
Lee said playing Seo-young required a greater depth of emotion than any of her previous
roles, which left her drained but also feeling a greater sense of achievement.
The family drama was the biggest hit yet of Lee's career; it dominated the weekly ratings
chart for 22 straight weeks, and recorded a series high of 47.6% on its last episode,
the highest Korean drama rating in 2013.
Her follow-up series I Can Hear Your Voice was also popular during its run.
In it, Lee played a materialistic public defender who testified in behalf of a boy with supernatural
abilities a decade ago after she witnessed the boy's father being murdered.
Critics said with her stubborn and argumentative character, Lee was able to break free of her
previous calm and elegant image.
She won several awards for her performance, including the Daesang, the highest honor at
the SBS Drama Awards.
In 2014, Lee played a mother who travels back in time two weeks before her daughter's kidnapping
and murder in God's Gift - 14 Days.
Other activities Lee is also active in environmental causes,
including the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.
Personal life Lee met actor Ji Sung on the set of 2004 TV
series Save Last Dance for Me, and they confirmed their relationship in 2007.
On August 2, 2013, they announced their engagement by uploading handwritten letters on their
respective official fan sites.
They married at Aston House, W Seoul Walkerhill Hotel on September 27, 2013.
Filmography Television drama
Film Variety show
Music video Awards and nominations
References
External links Lee Bo-young at Will Entertainment
Lee Bo-young fan cafe at Daum Lee Bo-young at HanCinema
Lee Bo-young at the Korean Movie Database Lee Bo-young at the Internet Movie Database