Lee Yoo-ri

Lee Yoo-ri met theologist Jo Kye-hun in 2008 during one of her bible studies and the couple started dating a year later, eventually getting married in 2010.

Lee is a devoted Christian and converted from Buddhism to Christianity in 2002.

Lee Yoo-ri was born in Seoul, South Korea on 28th January 1980 in a middle class household. She was the youngest member in the family of 6, and had an older brother and two older sisters.

Always a fan of dramas, she had seen the dream of becoming an actor well during her childhood days and eventually started training herself with the plays in school.

Having an artistic inclination towards life, she was always dug up in books, paintings and music and loved the way the artists lead their lives. Acting had taken a backseat during her high school years as she prepared herself to become a painter, or a musician.

Once the school was over, and she enrolled into the Kyewon University of Arts & Design, she once again got interested in acting and started giving out auditions after auditions, eventually getting a few smaller parts in the TV productions.

Lee’s very first stint in front of the camera was with ‘Hur Jun’ in 1999, where her role was limited to just being an extra as one of the court maids.

After a year gap, she finally bagged a better role in 2001, in the youth series ‘School 4’, an anthology TV series, which she says was her debut. In the same year, she got to play the role of Empress Sunmyeong in the period drama ‘Empress Myeongseong’. In both the series, Lee had minimal time on-screen and in the following few series’ as well, there was no improvement in the roles she was being offered.

Lee was getting sidelined as just another pretty face with no talent and as in the next few years, she kept appearing in the smaller roles in series’ such as ‘Argon’, ‘Wife’, Twenty’ and ‘Yellow Handkerchief’, there was a time when she thought of quitting.

In 2004, came her first and last movie appearance to date with the small budget horror film ‘Bunshinsaba’. Although the film wasn’t released widely and remained largely unknown, it did receive critical acclaim and travelled to different film festivals around the globe. This was also the first time when Lee proved that given the right roles, she can give a chilling performance.

But it just wasn’t her time yet. Though the roles had improved, still not to the satisfaction of Lee, who desperately wanted to establish herself as a great actor. She joined the cast of the series ‘Mom’s dead upset’ in 2008, where she essayed the role of an innocent sweet working girl who receives the shock of a lifetime when she comes to know that her boyfriend happens to be a rich man.