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)
Korean name
Hangul 이상욱
Hanja 李詳旭
Revised Romanization I Sang-uk
McCune–Reischauer Ri Sang'uk

Will Yun Lee (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 to Korean parents.[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 training facility, 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 son was born in June 2013.[7]

Filmography

Film
Year Film Role Notes
2000 Gung Fu: The New Dragon Danny
What's Cooking? Jimmy Nguyen
2002 Die Another Day Colonel Tan-Sun Moon
Four Reasons Buddha Direct-to-video
2004 Torque Val
2005 Elektra Kirigi
2005 The Seed Ken Marcado
2007 Hers Lucas
2008 6th and Santa Fe Short film
2010 The King of Fighters Iori Yagami
2011 Where the Road Meets the Sun Takashi
Setup Joey
Five Star Day Samuel Kim
Oka! Yi
2012 Total Recall Marek
Red Dawn Captain Cho
2013 Superman: Unbound Parasoldier Leader Voice role
Direct-to-video
Make Your Move 3D Kaz
Lost for Words Stanford
The Wolverine Kenuichio Harada
Four Assassins Marcus
2015 Spy Timothy Cress
Power/Rangers General Klank Short film
San Andreas Dr. Kim Park
2016 Restored Me Trevor Kang
She Has a Name Akkarat
2017 Unspoken: Diary of an Assassin
2018 Bangkok Love Story
Canal Street Officer Hank Chu
Adi Shankar's Gods and Secrets
Rampage Agent Park
Television
Year Film Role Notes
1997 Nash Bridges Quick Episode: "Gun Play"
1998 Profiler Andrew Young Episode: "Ties That Bind"
Brimstone Roger Episode: "Poem"
1999 V.I.P. Bobby Wu Episode: "Mao Better Blues"
The Disciples Yoyo Lee TV movie
2000 Witchblade Danny Woo TV movie
2001 The Agency Sam Episode: "The Year of Living Dangerously"
2001–2002 Witchblade Detective Danny Woo 23 episodes
2002 Face Daniel
2003 10-8: Officers on Duty Detective Danny Chang Episode: "Let It Bleed"
2004 Threat Matrix Danny Roh Episode: "PPX"
Law & Order Hiroji Yoshida Episode: "Gaijin"
10-8: Officers on Duty Detective Danny Chang Episode: "Love Don't Love Nobody"
2006 Thief Vincent Chan Miniseries
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Dennis Kim Episode: "Time of Your Death"
Tsunami: The Aftermath Chai Miniseries
2007 Hustle Shiro Episode: "Conning the Artists"
Fallen Mazarin 4 episodes
Bionic Woman Jae Kim 7 episodes
2008 Finnegan Taki TV movie
2010 Boston's Finest Eddie Lao TV movie
2010–2017 Hawaii Five-0 Sang Min 11 episodes
2014 The Novice The Big Bang TV movie
True Blood Mr. Gus 5 episodes
Intelligence Jin Cong 2 episodes
2015 Strike Back: Legacy Kwon 5 episodes
Dr. Ken Kevin O'Connell Episode: "Kevin O'Connell"
The Player Liu Zeng Episode: "House Rules"
Warrior Susano
2016–2018 Falling Water[8] Taka Main role
2018 Altered Carbon Takeshi Kovacs 4 episodes
2018 The Good Doctor Dr. Alex Park Recurring (Season 1), Main (Season 2)
Video Games
Year Title Role Notes
2011 Saints Row: The Third Pedestrian and Character Voices Voice role
2012 The Amazing Spider-Man Additional Voices Voice role
Infex IngenBio Guard Voice role
Sleeping Dogs Wei Shen Voice role
Sleeping Dogs: Nightmare in North Point Wei Shen Voice role
Sleeping Dogs: Zodiac Tournament Wei Shen Voice role
2013 Sleeping Dogs: Year of the Snake Wei Shen Voice role
Saints Row IV The Voices of Virtual Steelport Voice role
2015 Mortal Kombat X Kung Lao Voice role [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". CinemaBlend. Retrieved July 11, 2012.
  5. ↑ "Sexiest Man Alive 2007: Will Yun Lee". People. November 14, 2008. Archived from the original on January 17, 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.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.