Lee Jong suk

Early life

Lee Jong-suk walked on the Seoul Collection catwalks in 2005 at the young age of 15, making him the youngest and most talked-about male model to debut at Seoul Collection program for Seoul Fashion Week. As soon as he debuted as a model, he was loved by many designers as a muse. He was boasting quite the extensive modeling career having walked fashion runways for some of the biggest shows. Since then he has walked in a number of fashion shows hosted by many of the top brands in Korea. During those years he worked as a model, he was praised by many as "a model who had the image of a boy and a grown man coexisting inside him".

Before debuting as an actor, he prepared to debut as an idol group member. He stated that he prepared as an idol group member for three months and had signed with the agency because it said it would help him act, but it didn’t keep its promise so he quit.

Lee Jong-suk, who majored in Professional Motion Pictures Art at South Korean Konkuk University, took part in a selection for actors at SBS TV station when he was currently in middle school. He participated in acting activities as one of the SBS 7th open recruiting actors.

2010–2012: Acting career beginnings

In 2010, Lee made his official acting debut in the South Korean TV series titled Prosecutor Princess. The same year he had a supporting role in the popular drama Secret Garden where he played a talented young composer with a surly attitude and a forbidden crush on the second male lead, Oska played by Yoon Sang-hyun. Lee caught people's eyes with his tall, charming appearance as well as his natural acting abilities.

In 2011 September, Lee appeared in MBC's High Kick Season 3 in which he portrayed the character An Jong Seok, who is involved in a complicated love square with Baek Jin Hee, Yoon Kye Sang and Kim Ji Won.

After his first acting experience in the horror movie Ghosts, Lee did star in the film R2B: Return to Base as a main character in his first flight movie. He played an important role with Rain appearing as part of a team of F-15K pilots. It is a remake of the original 1964 Korean Film Red Scarf set during the Korean War.

2012 – 2013: Rising popularity

2012 became his breakout year thanks to his first lead role as Go Nam Soon, a high school student, in the drama School 2013. He received his first award for the role as Go Nam Soon during the KBS Drama Awards 2012 in the category "Best New Actor". Furthermore, he hosted the ceremony together with Yoo Jun-sang.

Following the success of School 2013, Jong-suk starred in the popular and acclaimed drama I Can Hear Your Voice with Lee Bo-young, where he played Park Soo Ha, an intelligent young man who could read minds. According to the related personnel from the drama:

This ability allowed him to help her solve her cases, as well as fight against a murderous criminal who holds a grudge against them. Furthermore, he reunited in the drama with Yoon Sang-hyun who portrayed Oska in Secret Garden. Originally the drama was set for 16 episodes, but due to its successful ratings the series was extended by 2 episodes. I Can Hear Your Voice gave him outstanding recognition, and became his most well-known work to date. He received the "Excellence Award" in the male category award during the Korea Drama Awards for his role in SBS television series I Can Hear Your Voice as well as the "Best Couple Award" together with Lee Bo-young.

Moreover, he was one of the lead actor in the movie No Breathing with Seo In-guk and Kwon Yuri from Girls' Generation. He portrayed the character Woo Sang who is an ambitious, young swimmer chasing with a big future ahead of him and always strives to be #1.

2014 – present: Rising popularity in China and International fame

In 2014, he starred in the movie Hot Young Bloods with Park Bo-young. The movie is set in an agricultural town in Chungcheong back in the 1980s and focuses on the lives and loves of several high school students. It's Lee's second film as the lead and he plays for the new again a high school student; this time a popular playboy.

He also took the lead role in the popular medical drama, Doctor Stranger in the same year. In the drama he plays Park Hun, an intelligent doctor who came from North Korea, but who gets shunned because of his background. In China, the online streaming rights for drama were sold for $80,000 per episode. Furthermore, the drama was made available for online streaming on both Youku and Tudou where it received 330 million and 50 million views, respectively. It was predicted that "Doctor Stranger" will get approximately 600 million views by the time the drama finishes up, Lee's previous drama, I Can Hear Your Voice, has surpassed 350 million views on YouKu as of July 2014. Due to the drama's success in China it was planned to edit the drama into a film and release it theatrically exclusively in China with an alternate ending. Lee has become so popular in China that he is called one of the "Fantastic Four of Hallyu". The other three actors are Kim Soo-hyun, Lee Min-ho and Kim Woo-bin.

On September 11, 2014 Lee Jong-suk was confirmed to star in Pinocchio as the lead male role alongside actress Park Shin-hye. He will play the role of Choi Dal Po who is a first year reporter at a broadcasting company. His character is described to have a handsome appearance, but his ugly clothing and hair style make people unaware of his nice physical attributes. His character is said to have excellent memory and speaks well.

His hard work throughout the year and impressive performance in the drama Pinocchio, the role earned him several acting awards including the "Top Excellence Award" in the male category by the 8th Korea Drama Awards, and the "SBS Special Award" at the SBS Drama Awards for his roles in the drama Pinocchio, and Doctor Stranger. His role in Pinocchio also won him the honorable award chosen by Korean directors in every broadcasting station in Korea, and known to be one of the most honorary events of the year, the 27th Grimae Awards for “Best Male Actor” and is also the first youngest actor in history to be awarded the Grimae Awards. Due to the success of drama Pinocchio and his popularity, he won another award for "Most Popular Actor" at the 51st Baeksang Arts Awards.

Pinocchio has gained 6.2 billion won (US$5.62 million) in just one year, the highest price ever sell in China. The export price being paid for each of the episodes of the currently running drama. Each episode is being sold for $280,000. Because of its record-breaking price, the drama's name "Pinocchio", has become the most widely searched word on Chinese search portals.

Through September 2014 to May 2015, he visited many cities in 7 different Asian countries in order to meet along with his fans for his 2014-2015 Asia Fan Meeting Tour. Throughout the 9 months, he held enthusiast get togethers in many cities such as Seoul, Beijing, Bangkok, Guangzhou, Taipei, Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong. His fan meeting in Guangzhou, China, after it was announced on January 9 that the most expensive seats will come with a special prize, those seats were sold out in 30 seconds. Those tickets are truly expensive, as each costs 1,580 yuan (about US$298). On March 28, Lee's '2015 Asia Tour in Shanghai' took place at Luwan Gymnasium with a ton of fans in attendance and a total of 800,000 live-streaming fans which holds a record-breaking fan meeting in Shanghai. Tickets for ‘2015 Lee Jong Suk Fan Meeting in Japan’ sold out all seats in just 3 minutes.

In 2014 and 2015, he appeared in the new promotional posters and ads for Oakley, making him the first Korean model to appear in endorsements for popular eyewear and apparel brand, Oakley.

On August 1, 2015 he launched his fan meeting photobook, ‘With: 2014-2015 Lee Jong Suk Asia Tour Story’, sold in 29 countries around the world.

Due to his high popularity in Asia, his wax figure will be unveiled in 2016 at Madame Tussauds in Hong Kong.

Ambassadors

Lee received 3 months training to pilot an ultra-light aircraft at Sa-dong Airfield in Sangnok-gu, Ansan City. After studying flight theory, he took part in flight exercises with an instructor before putting his training into practice with solo flights.

He becomes honorary Ambassador for ‘Good Voice Festival’. He attended talent donation audition, ‘Good Voice Festival,’ which was held on January 11 at COEX, Seoul, as an ambassador. As part of ‘Standard Chartered Bank Good Library Project Season 3,’ ‘Good Voice Festival’ encouraged people to donate their voice to make an audio guide for 500 world’s popular art pieces. The audio guide will be specially designed for people with visual impairments.

The month-long Korean Fashion Culture Season which is jointly organized by Chongqing Cultural Investment Group and KOCCA (Korean Creative Content Agency) will last until December 25th, where the Chinese people can experience K-POP showcase, NANTA show, Korean cultural exhibition, Korean fans’ festival, and many other activities.

Donations

Lee donated all his pay from the special episode to charity.

Donating to the Red Cross to improve the residential environment.

Lee and youth organization ‘GOOD WAY WITH US’ started donation campaign ‘House of Hope Home Remodeling Project.’ ‘House of Hope,’ located in the parking lot of Sindang Social Welfare Center, is a two-story house built from shipping container. It is used as a shelter for fathers and their sons who are suffering from financial difficulties, divorce, and other issues. ‘House of Hope’ financially helps the families as providing the father with job opportunities, as well as offers educational supports for the children as well. However, there isn't proper heating or cooling equipment, and the house is too small and dreary, for it is made with shipping containers. He decided to work with ‘GOOD WAY WITH US,’ supporting the donation, ‘House of Hope Home Remodeling Project.’ He participated in campaigns to give children a better residential environment.

He endorsed the hat knitting campaign of "Save The Children Korea" which is a campaign that makes hats for the children who are suffering from hypothermia in Africa and Asia.

Since November 2013, Lee Jong-suk uses his voice to help the blind as the Ambassador for the 'Good Library Project'. He is lending his face and voice to Standard Chartered Bank's project. The project gets people to donate their voices to reading books for recording so that blind people may also enjoy their stories.

He donated his personal items to auction off in an attempt to help those in need, low-income families, and suffering from the illness. All profits will be donated to the Community Chest of Korea.