Han Ye seul

Early life

Leslie Kim (or Kim Ye-seul-i in Korean) was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She attended Cerritos High School and graduated from Cerritos College with an associate degree in Computer Graphics. She is fluent in both English and Korean.

Acting debut

She began her modeling career in South Korea after winning the SBS Supermodel Contest in 2001. Under the stage name Han Ye-seul, she made her acting debut in the popular sitcom Nonstop 4 in 2003. Han quickly rose to fame, and she renounced her U.S. citizenship in 2004 and became a naturalized South Korean citizen to continue establishing herself in Korean entertainment. But her performances in Forbidden Love (2004) and That Summer's Typhoon (2005) received poor reviews, with critics dismissing her as primarily a commercial model and not a real actress.

Breakthrough

Han starred in Couple or Trouble (also known as Fantasy Couple, 2006), a remake of Overboard written by the Hong sisters. She was praised for her comic timing and the series was a hit.

She continued starring in screwball comedy genres with her first film Miss Gold Digger (2007). Despite the film's box office failure, Han's won several Best New Actress accolades from local award-giving bodies, including the prestigious Grand Bell Awards and Blue Dragon Film Awards.

Han starred in Tazza (2008), a TV adaptation of Huh Young-man's manhwa of the same name. This was followed up with the Lee Kyung-hee-penned Will It Snow for Christmas?.

Spy Myung-wol controversy

In 2011, Han was cast as the titular character in Spy Myung-wol. But the series gained notoriety when Han failed to show up for her scheduled filming on August 14–15 and instead flew to Los Angeles on August 16; it was the first instance of a leading actor abruptly leaving in the middle of a Korean drama shoot. Her then-agency SidusHQ cited conflicts with television director Hwang In-hyuk over her working conditions, and that exhaustion had compromised her judgment. Han's absence effectively halted production, and the KBS network lambasted her actions as "unilateral, irresponsible and will not be tolerated," while Lee Kim Productions threatened legal action. After extensive press coverage, Han returned to Korea and continued filming Spy Myung-wol on August 18. Upon arrival at Incheon International Airport, she apologized but maintained that her demands had been legitimate, "I want to believe that I did the right thing." Han drew criticism from TV industry professionals and viewers, but fans defended her, saying the stressful Korean drama live-shoot system was at fault.

Romantic comedy film Penny Pinchers was released two months after Spy Myung-wol finished airing.

Comeback

After the Spy Myung-wol controversy, public backlash resulted in Han taking a three-year hiatus from acting.

In late 2014, she made a comeback in Birth of a Beauty. This was followed with leading roles in romantic comedies Madame Antoine (2016), and 20th Century Boy and Girl (2017).

Personal life

On 2 May 2011, Han hit a man with the surname Do on the hip with the wing mirror of her Porsche while driving into the parking lot of her home in an apartment building in Samseong-dong. Do sustained minor injuries and Han's lawyers offered him ₩5 million in compensation, but Do claimed that she had fled the scene. Her then-agency SidusHQ denied this, saying she had apologized and checked if he was okay (but did not step out of her vehicle). After an investigation, police cleared Han of the hit-and-run allegations.

In May 2013, Han dated YG Entertainment record producer Teddy Park. The two were reported to have broken up on October 24, 2016.

In January 2015, the FSS included Han in a list of people who were found to have violated the foreign currency-related law by failing to report their asset acquisition (such as real estate overseas) to relevant authorities. This referred to a commercial building in Koreatown, Los Angeles that Han had bought in 2011, but her agency KeyEast issued a statement that the omission had been a technical mistake, because Han had transferred the building's ownership to a company in which she was the major shareholder and was unaware that she should report it.