Lee Young ae

Career

Lee made her debut as a model in 1991. After appearing in television commercials, she debuted as an actress in the 1993 drama How's Your Husband?, which won her Best New Actress at the SBS Drama Awards.

In 2000, she starred in the mysterious thriller film Joint Security Area, which became the highest-grossing Korean film at that time. Lee also received positive critiques for her performance. She was then invited by director Hur Jin-ho to star in his next film One Fine Spring Day, which won her Best Actress at the Busan Film Critics Awards.

She also starred in the TV series Fireworks. Fireworks was broadcast in Taiwan, and introduced Lee to Taiwan audiences.

Lee came to prominence in South Korea after starring in the historical drama Dae Jang Geum. It first aired from September 15, 2003 to March 23, 2004 on MBC, where it was the top program with an average viewership rating of 46.3% and a peak of 57.8% (making it the 10th highest rated Korean drama of all time. Lee won the Daesang (Grand Prize) award at the MBC Drama Awards, as well as the Top Excellence award. The show was then aired overseas in 91 countries and became exceptionally popular in mainland China, Mongolia, Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka and Cambodia. In 2005, nearly half the population of Hong Kong watched the finale of the drama. In mainland China, hundreds of million of viewers watched the drama despite the fact that it was shown late at night. The fame of Dae Jang Geum launched Lee into pan-Asia stardom as one of the biggest Hallyu stars.

Lee then starred in the third installment in Park Chan-wook's The Vengeance Trilogy, titled Sympathy For Lady Vengeance. She was awarded Best Actress at the 2005 Blue Dragon Film Awards and 2006 Baeksang Art Awards for her performance in the film.

Because of her success, Lee has been invited to visit mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Japan. In 2006, for the first time in 12 years, NHK had to use the NHK Hall to host the NHK show due to her popularity. She was also invited to the 2007 Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival in China.

In her 2006 autobiography Young-ae’s Vow, Lee recalled how she became an actress. She first entered show business after working with Andy Lau in a 1991 chocolate advertisement. In 1995, she made the decision to go to graduate school in order to learn the theory of acting. Since then, she has challenged herself in various kinds of acting roles.

In 2007, she received the Medal of Culture Merit for her contribution to the Korean Wave from the South Korean government.

Lee also became one of the most in-demand celebrity endorsers in South Korea. Her major contract in 2006 and 2007 was with LG Corp., a large South Korean conglomerate. She became the Pan-Asian spokesmodel for all LG Electronics' products.

In 2015, it was announced that Lee would be making her comeback to television in SBS historical series Saimdang, Light's Diary. She would be playing dual roles as Shin Saimdang, a famed Joseon-era artist and calligrapher as well as a modern-day Korean history lecturer.

Philanthropy

Besides her acting career, she has also been involved with several charities. In 1997 she went to Ethiopia as a NGO Goodwill Ambassador. She went to Thar Desert in 1999 to do a TV show about people in India's lowest social caste. Later in 2001, she published these experiences in her autobiography “A Most Special Love” and donated the income from the sale of the book to charity.

She was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador in 2004 by UNICEF and has since held several charity functions. She has made many donations to schools and hospitals, including the Chosun First Middle School in Harbin and an elementary school in China that was thereafter renamed Lee Young-Ae Elementary School.

In July 2014, Taiwanese media reported that Lee had privately assisted a pregnant Taiwanese woman who was vacationing with her husband in Seoul. The woman gave birth to her daughter prematurely and the infant had several complications. Lee found out about the couple through her friend and decided to pay their medical bills, which amounted to around NT$4 million (US$134,000) because the infant required two surgeries and constant medical care after she was born.

Her popularity in Sri Lanka, known locally as "Changumi" (චංගුමී), ultimately led to the creation of the "Sujatha Diyani Scholarship Fund" in 2014 where she donated US$100 000. The fund aims at providing financial assistance to female students of low income families. In June 2017, she donated $50,000 to support relief operations for victims of the 2017 Sri Lanka floods.

Personal life

On August 24, 2009, Lee married Jeong Ho-young, a Korean-American businessman 7 years her senior, in the United States. On February 20, 2011, Lee gave birth to twins, one boy and one girl, at the Jeil Hospital in Jung-gu, Seoul.

Awards