Born in 1972, Lee Jungjae debuted in 1993 in the youth series <Dinosaur Teacher>. He made a strong impression the following year in his first big screen role in <The Young Man> (1994) and achieved a rare grand slam by picking up the newcomer awards from the three most prestigious award shows in Korea (the Blue Dragon Film Awards, the Baeksang Arts Awards and the Grand Bell Awards). Action drama film <City of the Rising Sun> (1999) marked his first lead role ...More

Born in 1972, Lee Jungjae debuted in 1993 in the youth series <Dinosaur Teacher>. He made a strong impression the following year in his first big screen role in <The Young Man> (1994) and achieved a rare grand slam by picking up the newcomer awards from the three most prestigious award shows in Korea (the Blue Dragon Film Awards, the Baeksang Arts Awards and the Grand Bell Awards). Action drama film <City of the Rising Sun> (1999) marked his first lead role in cinema and also the beginning of a long and strong friendship with co-star Jung Woosung. He quickly became a bankable actor, <Oh! Brothers> (2003) and <Typhoon> (2005) scoring 3.1 and 4.1 million admissions, respectively. After a brief outing to the TV screens, he returned to the film sector with his role as a tough man who cheats on his wife with his housemaid in <The Housemaid> (2010). Lee’s image began to change in 2012 thanks to his charismatic turn in the smash hit caper film <The Thieves>. He drew even more notice in 2013 for his leading role in the well-reviewed gangster saga <New World> and for his scene-stealing supporting role in the period hit <The Face Reader>, which earned him many industry awards. 2014 saw him take on the role of an MMA fighter who must go on the run as he is forced to participate in a dangerous game show when his brother is kidnapped in the film <Big Match>. Re-teaming with director Choi Donghoon, Lee was seen the following summer in the period thriller <Assassination> (2015), alongside Ha Jungwoo and Gianna Jun. After another successful turn as a tough hero in <Operation Chromite> (2016), he played the King of the Underworld in the fantasy epic <Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds> (2017) and its follow-up. Next for him was the role of a pastor investigating a mysterious cult in the occult thriller <SVAHA : THE SIXTH FINGER> (2019). In 2020, he starred alongside Hwang Jungmin in <DELIVER US FROM EVIL> (2020), the most-watched film in Korea during the Covid-19 pandemic, drawing more than 4 million spectators to theaters. Already a star in Korea, he reached international stardom overnight with the release of <Squid Game>, the survival original Netflix series that dominated the conversation all over the world in Fall 2021. This led him to receive a large number of accolades, including a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award. Taking on a new challenge, he made his directing debut with the action film <HUNT> (2022) and presented it at the Cannes Film Festival that year. Less