Born in 1992, Lee Jooyoung had first decided to go to Kyung Hee University to study physical education with no clear objective in mind, but as she got into the habit of watching plays every week in Daehangno, Seoul’s theatre district, she slowly warmed to the idea that she might as well give acting a try. She eventually transferred to the dramatics department and, starting with the short <Encounter> in 2012, she was cast in several short and feature indie films such ...More

Born in 1992, Lee Jooyoung had first decided to go to Kyung Hee University to study physical education with no clear objective in mind, but as she got into the habit of watching plays every week in Daehangno, Seoul’s theatre district, she slowly warmed to the idea that she might as well give acting a try. She eventually transferred to the dramatics department and, starting with the short <Encounter> in 2012, she was cast in several short and feature indie films such as <Beauty of a Journey> (2014). Renowned indie director Zhang Lu took notice of her in 2013 when he watched the short <Sisters on the Road>, which was selected by the Busan Peace Film Festival the year he was a jury member, and offered to meet her. The two quickly discovered they had similar tastes in films and became friends, and so Zhang cast her in <A Quiet Dream> (2016) in the role of one of the few patrons of the watering hole where most of the action takes place. The movie was chosen as the closing film of the Busan International Film Festival. Since Lee had been pretty busy in 2016, the public of the festival had had other occasions to discover her over the course of the event, as she also starred in the indie favorite <Jane> (2016) and served as a support character in <Jamsil> (2016), another standout indie film that year. She followed it up with supporting parts in TV series <Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-joo> (2016-2017) and <Something in the Rain> (2018), before finding success in Busan again in 2018, when she received one of the two Actors of the Year Awards (both handed out to actresses that year) for the mystery drama <Maggie> (2018). Also in 2018, she took on her first role in a mainstream film, as she played alongside Son Yejin and Hyun Bin in the thriller <THE NEGOTIATION> (2018). Lee drew a lot of attention in 2020 with her performance as a transgender woman in the drama series <Itaewon Class> (2020), while on the big screen she impressed critics and film professionals with her lead performance in <Baseball Girl> (2019), earning as a result the Indie Star Award at the Seoul Independent Film Festival, as well as the Screen International Rising Star Asia Award at the New York Asian Film Festival. Less