Lee Hee-joon

Lee Hee-joon (이희준, born June 29, 1979 in Daegu) is a veteran South Korean character actor with a career spanning theater, film, and television. His path to acting was anything but conventional. After studying chemical engineering at Yeungnam University and facing a car accident that exempted him from military service, he discovered a passion for performance through a children's theatre company in Daegu. He joined the Onnuri troupe as a stagehand -- cleaning, cooking, posting flyers -- and taught himself the craft through Stanislavsky's Actor's Class before debuting on stage in 1999.

Driven to study acting formally, Lee applied to and was initially rejected by the Korea National University of Arts, then earned entry at 24. He graduated on full scholarship for three of his eight semesters, describing the experience as transformative. Stage work in Daehakro through the early 2000s built him a reputation as one of the most technically rigorous actors of his generation, long before television audiences knew his face.

He transitioned to screen in the mid-2000s, accumulating supporting work in films including Secret Sunshine (2007) and The Yellow Sea (2010). His wider public breakthrough came with the KBS2 series My Husband Got a Family (2012). Since then, Lee has become one of Korean cinema and television's most trusted character leads -- capable of anchoring crime procedurals, historical thrillers, and political dramas with equal authority. Standout credits include 1987: When the Day Comes (2017), Miss Baek (2018), The Man Standing Next (2020), Mouse (2021) as lead detective Go Mu-Chi, A Killer Paradox (2024), and Badland Hunters (2024). His 2026 drama The Scarecrow stars him alongside Park Hae-soo in a crime thriller based on the Hwaseong serial murder case. He is married to actress Lee Hye-jung (April 2016) and is represented by BH Entertainment.