Lee Yeon-hee

Lee Yeon-hee
Born	(1988-01-09) January 9, 1988 Sil-li (신리), Samsan-myeon, Haenam County, Jeollanam-do, South Korea
Nationality	South Korean
Other names	Lee Yeoni
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2001-present
Agent	S.M. Entertainment
Height	1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Religion	Christian
Korean name
Hangul	이연희
Hanja	李沇熹
Revised Romanization	I Yeon-hui
McCune–Reischauer	I Yŏn-hŭi

Lee Yeon-hee (Hangul: 이연희; born January 9, 1988) is a South Korean actress. She is most known for her work in the television series East of Eden (2008), Phantom (2012), Miss Korea (2013) and in the films A Millionaire's First Love (2006), M (2007) and Detective K: Secret of the Lost Island (2015).

Early life

Lee was born in the Haenam County, South Korea and grew up in Bundang.^[1] In 2002, Lee successfully signed a contract with S.M. Entertainment after she won the category of "Best Feature" in the SM Entertainment Best Youth contest. For the contest, she acted out a monologue, singing to Dana The Grace's "Until the End of the World", and also did freestyle modeling poses. After she joined the company, she began intense training lessons on acting, singing, and dancing.

Career

Soon after she joined SM Entertainment, Lee began her career by starring in music videos for SM artists, such as boy band TVXQ, Moon Heejun, KangTa, Shinhwa, and Fly to the Sky, overtaking SM artists Kim Bomi (of M.I.L.K.) and Lee Jiyeon (commonly known as LinA, of CSJH The Grace) as "The SM music video girl". In the span of two years, she starred in eight music videos.

Though Lee had relatively steady work between modelling in magazines, commercial ads and appearing in music videos, she did not officially debut until late 2004. In November 2004, she starred as the younger version of the main character in the hit historical drama Emperor of the Sea, and appeared in the latter episodes of the daily drama My Lovely Family.^[2] Lee then had a minor role in Resurrection. Meanwhile, she kept busy throughout the rest of 2005 by filming many commercials and modelling for various magazines, and was in the first line-up of Girls' Generation during the creation process of the group. After being cut from the group, she decided to continue her career as an actress.

Lee's breakthrough came in the romance film A Millionaire's First Love, where she starred alongside Hyun Bin. She also made her singing debut for the film, singing "Do-Re-Mi" from The Sound of Music and Insa for the film's original soundtrack. Lee followed this with another successful film, M alongside Kang Dong-won.

In 2008, she starred as one of the main cast in East of Eden. Unfortunately her acting in the series received overwhelming negative criticism and considered by many critics and audiences as the weakest part of the drama's ensemble.

In 2011, Lee starred opposite Jang Dong-gun, Joe Odagiri, and Fan Bing-bing in big budget film My Way, and in the drama series Paradise Ranch alongside label-mate Shim Chang-min of boy band TVXQ. However, both works were critical and commercial failures. In 2012, Lee reunited with U-Turn co-star So Ji-sub in the crime thriller Phantom. Despite the show's critical and rating success, Lee's acting was once again panned by critics, many of which cited her awkward and flat-line delivery, monotonous expression, and lack understanding of her character.

In 2013, Lee made special appearance in the historical drama Gu Family Book. She closed that year with the television series Miss Korea, to positive reviews, with many considering her role as her best performance to date. However, the drama suffered low rating due to competition from the mega-hit series My Love from the Star.

Lee followed her small-screen success with the commercial hit film Detective K: Secret of the Lost Island in 2015. She then starred in MBC's 54th anniversary drama, Splendid Politics. However, Splendid Politics was another failure and suffered low ratings during its consecutive run.

In 2016, Lee was cast in the JYP Entertainment produced drama, The Package opposite Jung Yong-hwa and Choi Woo-shik.

Filmography

Film

Television drama

Variety show

Music video appearances

Discography

Awards and nominations

References

1. ↑ 해신 '정화'가 해남 출신이라니
2. ↑ "Lee Yeon-hee Poised to Make 2005 'Her Year'". KBS Global. 2 February 2005. 

External links

• Lee Yeon-hee at S.M. Entertainment (Korean)