Will Yun Lee
| Will Yun Lee | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Lee in 2013 | |
| Born |
Lee Sang-wook (이상욱) March 22, 1971 Arlington, Virginia, U.S. |
| Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley |
| Years active | 1997–present |
| Spouse(s) | Jennifer Birmingham (m. 2010) |
Will Yun Lee (hangul: 이상욱, hanja: 李詳旭; born March 22, 1971) is an American actor and martial artist. He is best known for his roles as Danny Woo in the supernatural drama series Witchblade and Jae Kim in the science fiction drama series Bionic Woman. Lee has also portrayed notable roles in the films Die Another Day (2002), Elektra (2005), and The Wolverine (2013).
Lee plays a recurring role as Sang Min in the police drama series Hawaii Five-0, and has also voiced Wei Shen, the protagonist of the video game Sleeping Dogs (2012).
Early life
Lee was born in Arlington, Virginia, and is of Chinese-Korean descent.[1] His parents are mother Jing Ja Lee and father Soo Woong Lee, a Taekwondo grandmaster.[2] He first began training at just three years old and spent a portion of his youth teaching at Lee's Tae Kwon Do, his family's business in Napa, California. Lee attended UC Berkeley with a full athletic scholarship to study Political Science and Ethnic Studies.[3]
Career
Will Yun Lee had supporting roles in high-profile films such as Die Another Day, Torque, The King of Fighters and Elektra. He has also acted on FX Network's mini-series Thief and ABC Family's TV movie Mini-series Fallen. He recently guest starred in Hawaii Five-0 as recurring character "Sang Min", and in True Blood as "Mr. Gus". He also played Kenuichio Harada in James Mangold's The Wolverine (2013).[4]
He provides the voice of the protagonist in Square Enix's Hong Kong open-world crime game, Sleeping Dogs as undercover cop Wei Shen.
In 2002 he was named by People as one of their "50 Most Beautiful People", which quickly led to high-profile roles. In November 2007, he was again recognized by People, this time as one of the members of their list of the 15 "Sexiest Men Alive".[5]
Will Yun Lee is among the actors, producers and directors interviewed in the 2006 documentary The Slanted Screen, directed by Jeff Adachi, about the representation of Asian and Asian American men in Hollywood. He was in the music video of Mariah Carey's "Boy (I Need You)" as well as Ice Cube's "Roll Call".
Personal life
In October 2010, Lee married actress Jennifer Birmingham in Shreveport, Louisiana.[6] Their first child, a son, was born in June 2013.[7]
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Nash Bridges | Quick | Episode: "Gun Play" |
| 1998 | Profiler | Andrew Young | Episode: "Ties That Bind" |
| 1998 | Brimstone | Roger | Episode: "Poem" |
| 1999 | V.I.P. | Episode: "Mao Better Blues" | |
| 2000 | Gung Fu: The New Dragon | Danny | |
| 2000 | What's Cooking? | Jimmy Nguyen | |
| 2000 | The Disciples | Yoyo Lee | |
| 2000 | Witchblade | Danny Woo | |
| 2001 | The Agency | Sam | Episode: "The Year of Living Dangerously" |
| 2001–2002 | Witchblade | Detective Danny Woo | 23 episodes |
| 2002 | Face | Daniel | |
| 2002 | Four Reasons | Buddha | |
| 2002 | Die Another Day | Colonel Tan-Sun Moon | |
| 2003 | 10-8: Officers on Duty | Detective Danny Chang | Episode: "Let It Bleed" |
| 2004 | Torque | Val | |
| 2004 | Threat Matrix | Danny Roh | Episode: "PPX" |
| 2004 | Law & Order | Hiroji Yoshida | Episode: "Gaijin" |
| 2004 | 10-8: Officers on Duty | Detective Danny Chang | Episode: "Love Don't Love Nobody" |
| 2005 | Elektra | Kirigi | |
| 2005 | The Seed | Ken Marcado | |
| 2006 | Thief | Vincent Chan | 6 episodes |
| 2006 | CSI: Crime Scene Investigation | Dennis Kim | Episode: "Time of Your Death" |
| 2006 | Tsunami: The Aftermath | Chai | |
| 2007 | Hers | Lucas | |
| 2007 | Hustle | Shiro | Episode: "Conning the Artists" |
| 2007 | Fallen | Mazarin | 4 episodes |
| 2007 | Bionic Woman | Jae Kim | 7 episodes |
| 2008 | 6th and Santa Fe | Short film | |
| 2008 | Finnegan | Taki | |
| 2010 | The King of Fighters | Iori Yagami | |
| 2010 | Boston's Finest | Eddie Lao | |
| 2010 | Five Star Day | Samuel Kim | |
| 2010–2016 | Hawaii Five-0 | Sang Min | 7 episodes |
| 2011 | Four Assassins | Marcus | |
| 2011 | Where the Road Meets the Sun | Takashi | |
| 2011 | Setup | Joey | |
| 2011 | Oka! | Yi | |
| 2012 | Total Recall | Marek | |
| 2012 | Red Dawn | Captain Cho | |
| 2012 | Bangkok Love Story | ||
| 2013 | Lost for Words | Stanford | |
| 2013 | The Wolverine | Kenuichio Harada | |
| 2013 | Make Your Move 3D | Kaz | |
| 2014 | True Blood | Mr. Gus | 5 episodes |
| 2014 | Intelligence | Jin Cong | 2 episodes |
| 2015 | San Andreas | Dr. Kim Park | |
| 2015 | Strike Back: Legacy | Kwon | 5 episodes |
| 2015 | Spy | Timothy Cress | |
| 2015 | Power/Rangers | General Klank | Short film |
| 2015 | Dr. Ken | Kevin O'Connell | Episode: "Kevin O'Connell" |
| 2015 | The Player | Liu Zeng | Episode: "House Rules" |
| 2016 | Falling Water[8] | Taka | |
| 2017 | She Has a Name | ||
Video games
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Saints Row: The Third | Various characters | |
| 2012 | Infex | IngenBio Guard | |
| 2012 | Sleeping Dogs | Wei Shen | |
| 2015 | Mortal Kombat X | Kung Lao | [9][10] |
References
- ↑ Busch, Anita. "Asian Actors In Hollywood: Increased Roles Mark Industry Sea Change". Deadline Hollywood.
- ↑ Cha, John (March 28, 2014). "March Issue: Something Worth Fighting For". KoreAm. Retrieved July 4, 2015.
- ↑ Turner, Miki (November 25, 2000). "What's Cooking For Will Yun Lee?". Chicago Tribune.
- ↑ Eisenberg, Eric (July 9, 2012). "The Wolverine Adds Will Yun Lee as Silver Samurai". http://www.cinemablend.com/. CinemaBlend. Retrieved July 11, 2012. External link in
|website=(help) - ↑ "Sexiest Man Alive 2007: Will Yun Lee". People. November 14, 2008. Retrieved November 21, 2007.
- ↑ Wihlborg, Ulrica (October 31, 2010). "Nick Lachey Is Real-Life Wedding Singer". People. Retrieved March 16, 2011.
- ↑ Leon, Anya (June 6, 2013). "Will Yun and Jennifer Birmingham Lee Welcome Son Cash". Reporting by Julie Jordan. People. Retrieved July 4, 2015.
- ↑ Warren, Andrew. "A Tennesse tale: Dolly Parton's most famous story is coming to the screen". TV Media.
- ↑ Brian Chard [bcharred] (April 14, 2015). "Huge thanks to the stellar MKX voice actors: Troy @TroyBakerVA (Shinnok/EBlack/Fujin), Ronald M. Banks (Quan Chi); Ashly Burch (Cassie)..." (Tweet). Retrieved April 21, 2015 – via Twitter.
- ↑ Brian Chard [bcharred] (April 14, 2015). "...Nathan Hosner (Narrator); Kelly Hu (D'Vorah/Sindel/Frost); Phil LaMarr (Kotal Kahn); Will Yun Lee (Kung Lao); Patrick Seitz (Scorpion)..." (Tweet). Retrieved April 21, 2015 – via Twitter.
External links
- Will Yun Lee at the Internet Movie Database
- Eichberger, Gaby; Schmidt, Christine (September 2011). "Interview with Will Yun Lee". mycoven.com