Will Yun Lee

Will Yun Lee

Lee in 2013
Born Lee Sang-wook (이상욱)
(1971-03-22) March 22, 1971
Arlington, Virginia, U.S.
Alma mater University of California, Berkeley
Years active 1997–present
Spouse(s) Jennifer Birmingham (m. 2010)

Will Yun Lee (hangul: 이상욱, hanja: 李詳旭; born March 22, 1971) is an American actor and martial artist. He is best known for his roles as Danny Woo in the supernatural drama series Witchblade and Jae Kim in the science fiction drama series Bionic Woman. Lee has also portrayed notable roles in the films Die Another Day (2002), Elektra (2005), and The Wolverine (2013).

Lee plays a recurring role as Sang Min in the police drama series Hawaii Five-0, and has also voiced Wei Shen, the protagonist of the video game Sleeping Dogs (2012).

Early life

Lee was born in Arlington, Virginia, and is of Chinese-Korean descent.[1] His parents are mother Jing Ja Lee and father Soo Woong Lee, a Taekwondo grandmaster.[2] He first began training at just three years old and spent a portion of his youth teaching at Lee's Tae Kwon Do, his family's business in Napa, California. Lee attended UC Berkeley with a full athletic scholarship to study Political Science and Ethnic Studies.[3]

Career

Will Yun Lee had supporting roles in high-profile films such as Die Another Day, Torque, The King of Fighters and Elektra. He has also acted on FX Network's mini-series Thief and ABC Family's TV movie Mini-series Fallen. He recently guest starred in Hawaii Five-0 as recurring character "Sang Min", and in True Blood as "Mr. Gus". He also played Kenuichio Harada in James Mangold's The Wolverine (2013).[4]

He provides the voice of the protagonist in Square Enix's Hong Kong open-world crime game, Sleeping Dogs as undercover cop Wei Shen.

Lee on the cover of KoreAm in 2007

In 2002 he was named by People as one of their "50 Most Beautiful People", which quickly led to high-profile roles. In November 2007, he was again recognized by People, this time as one of the members of their list of the 15 "Sexiest Men Alive".[5]

Will Yun Lee is among the actors, producers and directors interviewed in the 2006 documentary The Slanted Screen, directed by Jeff Adachi, about the representation of Asian and Asian American men in Hollywood. He was in the music video of Mariah Carey's "Boy (I Need You)" as well as Ice Cube's "Roll Call".

Personal life

In October 2010, Lee married actress Jennifer Birmingham in Shreveport, Louisiana.[6] Their first child, a son, was born in June 2013.[7]

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
1997 Nash Bridges Quick Episode: "Gun Play"
1998 Profiler Andrew Young Episode: "Ties That Bind"
1998 Brimstone Roger Episode: "Poem"
1999 V.I.P. Episode: "Mao Better Blues"
2000 Gung Fu: The New Dragon Danny
2000 What's Cooking? Jimmy Nguyen
2000 The Disciples Yoyo Lee
2000 Witchblade Danny Woo
2001 The Agency Sam Episode: "The Year of Living Dangerously"
2001–2002 Witchblade Detective Danny Woo 23 episodes
2002 Face Daniel
2002 Four Reasons Buddha
2002 Die Another Day Colonel Tan-Sun Moon
2003 10-8: Officers on Duty Detective Danny Chang Episode: "Let It Bleed"
2004 Torque Val
2004 Threat Matrix Danny Roh Episode: "PPX"
2004 Law & Order Hiroji Yoshida Episode: "Gaijin"
2004 10-8: Officers on Duty Detective Danny Chang Episode: "Love Don't Love Nobody"
2005 Elektra Kirigi
2005 The Seed Ken Marcado
2006 Thief Vincent Chan 6 episodes
2006 CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Dennis Kim Episode: "Time of Your Death"
2006 Tsunami: The Aftermath Chai
2007 Hers Lucas
2007 Hustle Shiro Episode: "Conning the Artists"
2007 Fallen Mazarin 4 episodes
2007 Bionic Woman Jae Kim 7 episodes
2008 6th and Santa Fe Short film
2008 Finnegan Taki
2010 The King of Fighters Iori Yagami
2010 Boston's Finest Eddie Lao
2010 Five Star Day Samuel Kim
2010–2016 Hawaii Five-0 Sang Min 7 episodes
2011 Four Assassins Marcus
2011 Where the Road Meets the Sun Takashi
2011 Setup Joey
2011 Oka! Yi
2012 Total Recall Marek
2012 Red Dawn Captain Cho
2012 Bangkok Love Story
2013 Lost for Words Stanford
2013 The Wolverine Kenuichio Harada
2013 Make Your Move 3D Kaz
2014 True Blood Mr. Gus 5 episodes
2014 Intelligence Jin Cong 2 episodes
2015 San Andreas Dr. Kim Park
2015 Strike Back: Legacy Kwon 5 episodes
2015 Spy Timothy Cress
2015 Power/Rangers General Klank Short film
2015 Dr. Ken Kevin O'Connell Episode: "Kevin O'Connell"
2015 The Player Liu Zeng Episode: "House Rules"
2016 Falling Water[8] Taka
2017 She Has a Name

Video games

Year Title Role Notes
2011 Saints Row: The Third Various characters
2012 Infex IngenBio Guard
2012 Sleeping Dogs Wei Shen
2015 Mortal Kombat X Kung Lao [9][10]

References

  1. Busch, Anita. "Asian Actors In Hollywood: Increased Roles Mark Industry Sea Change". Deadline Hollywood.
  2. Cha, John (March 28, 2014). "March Issue: Something Worth Fighting For". KoreAm. Retrieved July 4, 2015.
  3. Turner, Miki (November 25, 2000). "What's Cooking For Will Yun Lee?". Chicago Tribune.
  4. Eisenberg, Eric (July 9, 2012). "The Wolverine Adds Will Yun Lee as Silver Samurai". http://www.cinemablend.com/. CinemaBlend. Retrieved July 11, 2012. External link in |website= (help)
  5. "Sexiest Man Alive 2007: Will Yun Lee". People. November 14, 2008. Retrieved November 21, 2007.
  6. Wihlborg, Ulrica (October 31, 2010). "Nick Lachey Is Real-Life Wedding Singer". People. Retrieved March 16, 2011.
  7. Leon, Anya (June 6, 2013). "Will Yun and Jennifer Birmingham Lee Welcome Son Cash". Reporting by Julie Jordan. People. Retrieved July 4, 2015.
  8. Warren, Andrew. "A Tennesse tale: Dolly Parton's most famous story is coming to the screen". TV Media.
  9. Brian Chard [bcharred] (April 14, 2015). "Huge thanks to the stellar MKX voice actors: Troy @TroyBakerVA (Shinnok/EBlack/Fujin), Ronald M. Banks (Quan Chi); Ashly Burch (Cassie)..." (Tweet). Retrieved April 21, 2015 via Twitter.
  10. Brian Chard [bcharred] (April 14, 2015). "...Nathan Hosner (Narrator); Kelly Hu (D'Vorah/Sindel/Frost); Phil LaMarr (Kotal Kahn); Will Yun Lee (Kung Lao); Patrick Seitz (Scorpion)..." (Tweet). Retrieved April 21, 2015 via Twitter.

External links

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