Lee Sang-woo

Lee Sang-woo (born February 13, 1980) is a South Korean actor. He rose to fame in the 2007 television drama First Wives' Club, and has since played leading roles on The Road Home (2009), Don't Hesitate (2009), Life Is Beautiful (2010) and Feast of the Gods (2012).

Career

Lee Sang-woo launched his acting career in 2005, starring in a Drama City episode and a minor role in the television drama 18 vs. 29. This was followed by more supporting roles on television, including his big screen debut in Almost Love, a romantic comedy film headlined by Kwon Sang-woo and Kim Ha-neul. During this time, he also starred as one of the three leading actors of the independent film Don't Look Back (2006), which was the closing film of that year's Jeonju International Film Festival,^[1] and won a critic's prize at the Locarno International Film Festival.^[2]

Lee began his rise to fame with a supporting role in First Wives' Club, a popular drama which aired from 2007 to 2008 with a peak viewership rating of 41.3%.^[3] For his performance, he received a New Star Award at the SBS Drama Awards.

It was not until 2009 that Lee was cast in his first mainstream leading role, in The Road Home, followed soon after by another daily drama Don't Hesitate. In the same year, he also appeared as one of the leading actors in Searching for the Elephant, an erotic-psychological thriller about three thirty-something men struggling with schizophrenia, sex addiction and infidelity.^[4]

In 2010, Lee starred opposite Song Chang-eui in Life Is Beautiful, one of the few Korean dramas about an openly gay couple in a society still conservative when it comes to sexuality.^[5] Despite the controversy, it was successful in the ratings,^[6] and Lee would later work again with renowned screenwriter Kim Soo-hyun on A Thousand Days' Promise (2011) and Childless Comfort (2012).^[7]

After a supporting role in Believe in Love (also known as My Love, My Family, 2011), Lee was once again cast in the leading role in Feast of the Gods (2012).^[8][9] He later won the Excellence Award, Actor in a Special Project Drama at the MBC Drama Awards for Feast of the Gods and his supporting role in the period drama Horse Doctor.

In 2013, Lee joined the ensemble cast of Goddess of Marriage, followed by the adultery drama One Warm Word.^[10][11][12] Unlike his previous calm and quiet roles, in 2014 he was cast as the leading man in Glorious Day, a peculiar character which Lee said he looked forward to playing since it most resembles his real-life personality.^[13]

Personal life

On September 6, 2016, it was confirmed that Lee and actress Kim So-yeon are in a relationship. The two love birds met on the set of MBC's weekend drama Happy Home, and soon found love off the set as well. Happy Home ran for 6 months and aired its finale on August 21, and it's said the two stars started becoming interested in each other in the middle of the series and officially began dating towards the end. An insider from the drama revealed the chemistry between Lee Sang Woo and Kim So Yeon was obvious from the start. They're also reported to have similar personalities as they tend to be shy and reserved at first before warming up.

Filmography

Television series

Film

Music video

Awards and nominations

References

External links

• Lee Sang-woo on Cyworld
• Lee Sang-woo at HM Entertainment
• Lee Sang-woo Fan Cafe at Daum
• Lee Sang-woo at HanCinema
  
• Lee Sang-woo at the Internet Movie Database
• Lee Sang-woo (Personal account) at Instagram