Lee Min Ho

Biography

Lee Min-ho (born June 22, 1987) is a South Korean actor, singer, model, creative director, and businessman. He gained widespread fame worldwide with his role as Gu Jun-pyo in Boys Over Flowers (2009) which also earned him the Best New Actor award at the 45th Baeksang Arts Awards.

 His notable lead roles in television series include Personal Taste (2010), City Hunter (2011), Faith (2012), The Heirs (2013), and The Legend of the Blue Sea (2016). In 2020 he starred in Studio Dragon's The King: Eternal Monarch, which grossed US$135 million.

 Apart from his television career, Lee was featured in the first lead role in the film Gangnam Blues (2015). This was followed by his first China-produced film Bounty Hunters (2016), and the mini-romance-web-series Line Romance (2014), both collectively grossed US$51 million.

The success of Lee's television series established him as a top Hallyu star; he is the most followed South Korean actor on social media. 

Lee became the first Korean celebrity to have a wax figure made in his image at Madame Tussauds, with figures being unveiled in Shanghai in 2013, and in Hong Kong in 2014. He earns US$2.5 million from product endorsements alone.

Lee has an elder sister, Yun-Jeong, who is the co-founder and CEO of his current agency MYM Entertainment.

Despite his Buddhist upbringing, Lee is irreligious.

Lee Min-ho launched the YouTube channel "leeminho film" where he serves as executive producer and creative director.

As of October 2020, Lee has over 3 million followers on Twitter, 23 million followers on Weibo and was the first Korean celebrity to garner 20 million followers on both Instagram and Facebook.

In 2014 and 2015, Lee topped an online poll organized by a Chinese entertainment magazine and was voted the "Asian Male God". 

In 2017, Lee was chosen as the "Most Favoured Korean Actor" by fans of the Korean Wave in the United States. With a combined total of 65 million followers, he is referred to as the "King of Social Media".