Lee Bo-young

Lee Bo-young met actor Ji Sung in 2004 on the set of the romantic drama ‘Save the Last Dance for Me’, in which they both starred though she did not play his main love interest. A relationship soon bloomed but it took them three more years to come out and publicly speak about it.

On August 2, 2013, their engagement was announced. They married on 27 September, in a ceremony held at Aston House, W Seoul Walkerhill Hotel. Lee gave birth to their first child, a daughter who they named Kwak Ji-yoo, on June 12, 2015.

Aware of the severe environmental issues of today, Lee has served as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador for years, participating in various charity events, doing volunteer work in Mongolia, and taking part in promotional campaigns for a clean environment.

Lee Bo-young was born on January 12, 1979, in Seoul, South Korea. When she was about 21 years old, she was crowned Miss Korea in Daejeon and the surrounding South Chungcheong Province. She graduated from the Seoul Women’s University with a major in Korean Literature.

Hoping to become a news presenter, she auditioned for and was selected by MBC in their 2002 recruitment drive as one of the 15 finalists. But ultimately she did not land the job and decided to try modelling instead. Her tenure in the fashion world turned out to be very productive as she not only accumulated experience, but also her appointment as Asiana Airlines’ exclusive advertising model paved her road towards stardom.

After making her acting debut in 2003 in the television series ‘Escape from Unemployment’, Lee Bo-young starred in another SBS drama ‘Long Live Love’. In 2004, she played the antagonist in ‘Save the Last Dance for Me’ and a year later, she landed her first leading role in ‘My Sweetheart, My Darling’.

She followed it up with the period drama ‘Ballad of Seodong’. Based on Seodong-yo, one of Korea’s oldest folk songs and its first hyangga, the series depicts a commoner falling in love with Princess Seonhwa (Lee) of the rival kingdom.

The 2004 film ‘My Brother’ served as her debut vehicle in films. She portrayed Jo Mi-ryeong, a high school student who is the love interest of both the male protagonists. Her second film was the neo-noir action thriller ‘A Dirty Carnival’, released in 2006.

In 2008 she starred alongside Park Yong-woo in the major heist comedy film ‘Once Upon a Time’. She and Park portrayed a pair of swindlers in 1940s Korea looking to steal a priceless diamond from the Japanese authorities. The movie received a Grand Bell nomination for Best Costume Design. She acted in two back-to-back melodrama films in 2009, ‘More Than Blue’ and ‘I am Happy’.

Lee returned to the small screen in 2010 with ‘Harvest Villa’, where she played a seductress opposite Shin Ha-kyun and ‘Becoming a Billionaire’, a romantic comedy series with her as the female lead. She then joined the cast of ‘Athena: The Goddess of War’ as a guest star. Later, she was seen in the post-divorce romance series ‘Hooray for Love’ (2011).

In 2015, Lee published her collection of essays on 23 books with varying themes of love, consolation, and growth that, over the years, have influenced her life in a book titled ‘Time of Love’. Essentially an anthology of reviews, these books include José Mauro de Vasconcelos' ‘My Sweet Orange Tree’, ‘The Little Prince’, and Alain de Botton's ‘Essays in Love’. She had worked on this book during her hiatus from acting due to pregnancy.