Lee Min-ho is a popular 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.
Gatekeepers News reports that 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).
Early Life and Education
Lee Min-ho was born on June 22, 1987, in Heukseok-dong, Dongjak-gu, Seoul. Raised by Buddhist parents, he is the youngest of their two children. As a child, Lee initially hoped to become a professional football player.
While attending Namseong Elementary School, he was selected for the junior football class of manager and ex-professional player Cha Bum-kun. However, an injury during fifth grade put an end to his aspiration. Also beginning from when he was in Namseong, other pupils would joke and call Lee names. In a 2009 interview with the Asia Business Daily, he recalled his friends there nicknaming him kkamdungi about his tan skin. Other nicknames were ‘skeleton’ from his time at Banpo Middle School and ‘demon’ in high school—the former stemmed from the thought that he was “too skinny” whereas the latter nickname was what his “playful” personality earned him.
By his first year at Danggok High School, Lee had already turned his interests to acting and modelling. After he posed for a few magazines, he met the future president of Starhaus Entertainment coincidentally. The encounter would fuel his newly professional career as an actor, and he would ultimately sign with the agency in 2005.
In 2006, Lee enrolled at Konkuk University. In the university’s College of Art and Design, he began majoring in Film Arts, for which he has since gotten a bachelor’s degree. He is currently pursuing his master’s degree in Film at Kookmin University Graduate School.
Career
He made his debut with MBC’s Love Hymn (2005), playing a minor character role. Min Ho landed his first leading role in 2007, when he portrayed Cha Gong Chan in SBS’s 8-part high-school drama Mackerel Run. However, his career breakthrough came two years later when he got the lead part as Gu Jun-Pyo in Boys Over Flowers (KBS2), the Korean adaptation of the popular Japanese television drama Hana Yori Dango. Starring alongside Koo Hye Sun, Kim Bum and Kim Hyun Joong, his appearance in this show catapulted him to fame. Then followed another success with MBC TV drama Personal Taste, in which he played an ambitious young architect. In 2011, he starred along with actress and model Park Min Young, in the hit action drama City Hunter. The popularity of the series contributed to Min Ho’s growing popularity in other parts of Asia including Japan, the Philippines and China. After his significant roles in drama series, Min Ho took the #1 spot for Best Hallyu Star in a Japanese magazine dedicated to Korean dramas in June of 2012.
Personal Life
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.
In 2006, Lee’s acting career was put on hold for a year following a serious car wreck, which occurred while riding with fellow actor Jung Il-woo and two other friends. The group of friends were driving to Gangwon Province when a car crossing from the opposite lane after fleeing from a previous hit-and-run hit them head-on, destroying the hood and engine of their car. Lee and Jung, who were seated in the back of the car, survived the wreck in a critical state. Their friends, both sitting in the front of the car, died on the spot. Lee was severely injured and in a coma for a month, after which he spent several months bedridden. His injuries included broken ribs, thigh and ankle, along with a tear in his knee cartilage. As part of his treatment, a 46-centimeter metal pin was inserted in his thigh, leaving one of his legs shorter than the other.
Lee Min-ho began his mandatory military service on May 12, 2018, at the Suseo Social Welfare Centre in Gangnam District Office as a public service officer. Lee was unable to serve as an active duty soldier due to a car crash in August 2006. He suffered another car wreck in 2011 while filming City Hunter.
On March 15, 2018, Lee entered his military training at the Korea Army Training Centre in Nonsan, South Chungcheong Province. He returned to his public service duty after four weeks of basic military training. He was discharged from South Korean Military service on April 25, 2019.
Net Worth
The talented artiste has a total net worth of $26 million.
