Born in Seoul, Lee debuted as a fashion model, then began his acting career on television, notably in the campus series Feelings (1994) and the drama Sandglass (1995). After his acting breakthrough in An Affair (1998), Lee's film career took off. He has starred in a variety of film genres, among them romantic films such as Il Mare (2000) (which would later on had an American remake called The Lake House) and Over The Rainbow (2002), the melodrama Last Present (2001), well known comedies such as Oh! Brothers (2003), action films The Last Witness (2001) and Typhoon (2005), heist film The Thieves (2012), film noir New World (2013), and period film The Face Reader (2013). He won Best Actor awards at the Blue Dragon Film Awards for City Of The Rising Sun (1999), and at the Fantasporto Director's Week for The Housemaid (2010). In 2021, Lee gained widespread international stardom and fame for his role as Seong Gi-hun, the main protagonist of Netflix's survival drama Squid Game. In December 2021, he was selected as Gallup Korea's Film Actor of the Year.
Aside from his acting career, Lee is also a businessman, having launched a chain of restaurants in Seoul, as well as founding several businesses including the development company Seorim C&D. He owns several of his businesses with fellow actor and close friend Jung Woo-sung.
Filmography:
Film
- The Accidental Gangster and the Mistaken Courtesan as Cheon-dong
- Along With The Gods: The Two Worlds as God of Death (King Yeomra)
- Assassination as Yeom Seok Jin
- Big Match as Choi Ik Ho
- City of the Rising Sun as Hong-ki
- Deliver Us from Evil (2020) as Ray
- The Face Reader as Prince Suyang/King Sejo
- The Housemaid as Hoon
- Il Mare as Han Sung Hyun
- New World as Lee Ja-Sung
- Operation Chromite as Jang Hak-Soo
- Over The Rainbow as Lee Jin-su
- Svaha: The Sixth Finger as Pastor Park
- The Thieves as Popie
- Tik Tok as Jiang Cheng-un
- Warriors Of The Dawn as To-Woo
Live-Action TV
- Air City as Kim Ji-Sung
- Chief of Staff as Jang Tae-Joon
- Sandglass as Baek Jae-Hee
- Squid Game as Seong Gi-hun
- The Acolyte
