Lee Jong Suk

Lee Jong Suk is a South Korean actor and model. He made his modeling debut in 2005 at the age of 16. He was the youngest male model to debut in the Seoul Collection. He perfectly possessed the image of a boy that was thought to be absent from the modeling world at the time, showing the boundaries between boys and men and becoming a top model with an androgynous image.

He was famously the muse of Beyond Closet’s Go Tae-yong, and was also the muse of womenswear designer Kim Si Yang. A veteran entering his 16th year of modeling, he is actually a few years older than him and is referred to as senior by other male models.

In the drama, Seo Ji-seok’s uncle, Seo Ji-seok, performs a ‘pooh-pooh’ to get his laptop, which is still a memorable scene. Even though it’s been a while since the series ended, in an interview, he said that he still feels embarrassed when he’s asked to do it at events or gatherings.

In the movie “Korea” directed by Moon Hyun-sung, which was released in May 2012, he played the role of Choi Kyong-seop, a North Korean table tennis player. It was a blunt and wordless role, but he showed a good performance by showing his own sweet love line. In “R2B: Return to Base,” he played Ji Seok-hyun, an air force fighter pilot with his own story, which he said was very difficult. He filmed a kissing scene with Jung Seok-won, who plays Choi Min-ho, a rescue team member who becomes a close friend in the movie, and to make matters worse, he had to tear a ligament in his leg while running in a scene where he was being chased by North Korean soldiers and had to catch and skin a snake to survive. However, all of these scenes were cut from the movie when it was finally released.

During this time, he also played Yoon Jeong-hyuk, a married man in love with a woman with a limited life in “Drama Special: When I Was the Prettiest,” and after the drama ended, the writer and director reunited for “School 2013. Lee Jong Suk, who was well-received by both of them in their previous works, was cast in the role of Ko Nam Soon in School 2013, and he received favorable reviews for his portrayal of the languid and indifferent but warm-hearted Ko Nam Soon. It was at this point that he began to gain public recognition as “actor Lee Jong-seok. School 2013 was a box office hit with a steady 10-15% viewership and was considered a masterpiece. In particular, the ending, which maintained its message until the end, was well received. As a result, he won the Best Newcomer award at the 2012 KBS Acting Awards, where he also served as MC alongside Yoon Yeo-jung and Yoo Jun-sang.

2013 Career

During the school shoot, the movie “Kwan Sang” was filmed in parallel. Lee Jong-seok plays Jin-hyung, the son of Naekyung (Song Kang-ho), an enterprising man who doesn’t believe in kansang and tries to defy his fate. The movie was released on September 11.

School 2013 ended on January 28, but in April, he was cast in the movie “Noblesse”. In this swimming-themed sports movie, Lee Jong-seok portrayed the role of a lonely young man who is always chasing first place as a proud swimmer. It was released on October 30, 2013. He was cast alongside Lee Bo Young and Yoon Sang Hyun in a drama called “I Can Hear Your Voice,” which aired in June as a follow-up to “All About My Love” on SBS. He played the role of a psychic boy who can read other people’s minds. At the time, the producers and broadcasters did not have high expectations, but I unexpectedly predicted a 20% viewership rating?! For more information, see the ratings trend section of the drama link.

Shortly after the drama ended, an article appeared confirming the casting of the movie “Boiling Youth,” which was under consideration: # The movie is about the last school uniform generation of the 80s, and the lead role is that of Jung Gil, “a Casanova of Hongseong Nongo legend with a powerful charm that can knock out female students with a single breath.”

In 2013 alone, he has filmed or is filming a total of two dramas and three movies (as of August 2013), so he has been working nonstop. Due to his hectic schedule, he even missed a trip to Phuket and a dinner at the Supreme Court for all the actors and staff after the end of Numoks. She appeared in the 15th episode of Potato Star, a PD production by Kim Byung Wook, who she worked with in High Kick 3. He plays the role of Lee Jong-seok, a character based on Park Soo-ha’s character, who accidentally gets involved in a sweet romance with Lee Soon-jae. It turns out that he can also read the minds of dogs. Lee Jong Suk made 2013 his year by hitting a series of home runs in movies, dramas, and commercials, and ended the year with two awards at the SBS Acting Awards for Best Teen Star and Best Miniseries.

2014-2015 – Doctor Stranger and Pinocchio

In 2014 he acted in the movie Hot Young Bloods with Park Bo Young, which is set in a farming village in Chungcheong back in the 1980s and focuses on the lives and loves of several high school students. It is Jong Suk’s second film in the lead role and he again plays a high school student.

He also took the lead role in the popular SBS medical drama Doctor Stranger in the same year. In the drama he stars as Park Hoon, a doctor born in South Korea but raised in North Korea after a nuclear crisis, he develops great medical skills but falls in love with a North Korean girl and their fate is at stake when they decide to escape. In China, the online streaming rights for the drama sold for $80,000 per episode, in addition, it was on streaming sites Youku and Tudou where it received 330 million and 50 million views, respectively.

In its previous drama I Can Hear Your Voice, it surpassed 350 million plays on Youku during July 2014. Due to the success of Doctor Stranger in China, it was planned to edit the series and turn it into a movie to be released exclusively in Chinese theaters. Jong Suk became so popular during that time in China that he was called by the press as one of the Hallyu Fantastic Four along with Kim Soo Hyun, Lee Min Ho and Kim Woo Bin.

On September 11, 2014, he was confirmed to star in Pinocchio alongside actress Park Shin Hye, where he played the role of Choi Dal Po, a reporter at a broadcasting company with a good memory. Subsequently between 2014 and 2015, he appeared in Oakley’s new ads globally, becoming the first Korean model to promote the famous eyewear brand.

2016 – present (Jade Lover and W)

In December 2015, he was confirmed as part of a new historical drama TV series directed by Jin Hyuk, a Chinese-Korean co-production titled Jade Lover that takes place in 1930 and whose filming began in January 2016 in China. It was announced that Chinese actress Zheng Shuang would star alongside him, in addition to being broadcast in Korea by Seoul Broadcasting System.

On January 29, he decided to become a volunteer and serve as a model for the Brown Edition charity cause organized by the instant messaging company LINE and Unicef, which corresponded to stuffed animals based on one of the app’s emoticons, which can be purchased and whose money would go to a charitable cause. It also decided to donate ₩200 million to Unicef’s Korean committee.

On July 20, 2016, he joined the main cast of the MBC series, W where he brought to life Kang Chul, a cartoon character that comes to life. He co-starred in the series with Han Hyo Joo.

In 2016 he filmed the series Jade Lover, however so far (August 2021) the series has not been released. In March 2018 it was announced that he would be leaving the agency.

On November 27, 2018 he joined the main cast of the new two-part miniseries Hymn of Death where he gave life to genius playwright Kim Woo-jin, until the end of the series on December 4 of the same year.

In 2019, he joined the main cast of the romance-comedy series Romance Is A Bonus Book (also known as Romance Supplement), where he brought to life Cha Eun-ho, a brilliant writer who is also the company’s youngest editor-in-chief.

In 2021, it was confirmed that he had joined the main cast of the movie Decibel.

In August of the same year, it was confirmed that he would join the main cast of the series Big Mouth where he will play Park Chang-ho, an unsuccessful lawyer who ends up achieving a winning percentage of only 10%. The series is expected to premiere in 2022.

Facts

• Education
  • Yong Ma Elementary School
  • Yongdong Middle School
  • National High School of Traditional Korean Arts
  • Yangjae High School
  • Konkuk University: Bachelor of Fine Arts
  • Konkuk University: Master of Arts in Film (Graduate School of Art and Design)
• Hobbies: Games, Basketball, Piano
• Specialty: Taekwondo (black belt), Songs.
• Instruments: Piano.
• Lee Jong Suk stood at the age of 15 on the catwalks of the Seoul Collection, becoming the youngest male model in 2005.
• Before debuting as an actor, he prepared to debut as a member of an idol group. He claimed that he prepared as an idol group member for three months and had signed with the agency as he said it would help him act, but he didn’t keep his promise so he quit.
• He was a trainee of SM Entertainment.
• He was a model for 6 years.
• Since November 2013, Lee Jong Suk uses his voice to help the blind as the ambassador of “Good Library Project”.
• He lent his image and voice to the Standard Chartered Bank project. The project brings people to donate their voices for reading books to record them so blind people can also enjoy the stories.
• Kim Woo Bin made a surprise appearance at Lee Jong Suk’s birthday fan meeting and Jong Suk cried.
• In the movie VIP, it was the first time he played as a villain.
• On May 10, 2016, he signed a contract with YG Entertainment.
• On July 25, 2017, he was appointed as the new honorary ambassador of Korea tourism. He also filmed eight commercials promoting different places in South Korea that attract different vacation themes for tourists: documentary, signature, trend, adventure, fantasy, intrigue, romance and mystery.
• He received a notice to enlist in the army on August 10, 2017, but decided to postpone it in order to finish his studies and also to participate in the promotions of his movie VIP and drama While You Were Sleeping. The actor finished with his physical exam for the military but was declared unfit to serve as an Active Duty soldier due to a knee injury.
• Last August 2017, it was disclosed that Jong Suk reached 10 million followers on his Instagram account, the first Korean actor to reach such a number of followers.
• On March 26, 2018, it was reported that after his contract with YG Entertainment ended on March 31, he would join YNK Entertainment.
• On April 2, 2018, it was reported that Lee Jong Suk established his own agency, A-MAN Project, in association with YNK Entertainment.
• On October 15, 2018, it was reported that the management contract with YNK Entertainment had culminated in September and it was decided not to renew.
• On February 25, 2019, it was reported that Lee Jong Suk would start his mandatory national service on March 8. Because he suffered a torn ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) in a car accident when he was 16 years old in the past, he was deemed unfit for service as an active duty soldier. Instead, he was assigned to a place by the Military Personal Administration, where he was a reservist who worked as a public service officer. He was discharged on January 2, 2021.
• Lee Jong Suk opened his own coffee shop in 2017 called 89 Mansion located in Sinsa-dong, Gangnam. The coffee shop was closed on September 14, 2020 due to the business being affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• On December 31, 2022, Dispatch reported that the two stars have been in a romantic relationship for some time. Both agencies confirmed the relationship stating: Lee Jong Suk and IU recently went from being close friends to being a couple and are in a serious relationship. They met in 2012 when they were both MCs of ‘Inkigayo’.