Will Yun Lee

Will Yun Lee

Lee in 2013
Born Lee Sang-wook (이상욱)
March 22, 1971
Arlington, Virginia, U.S.
Years active 1997–present
Spouse(s) Jennifer Birmingham (2010–present)

Will Yun Lee (hangul: 이상욱; born March 22, 1971) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in the TNT supernatural drama series Witchblade as Danny Woo and as Jae Kim on the NBC science fiction television drama Bionic Woman. He portrayed notable roles in the James Bond film Die Another Day, Elektra, and The Wolverine.

Early life

Lee was born in Arlington, Virginia, and is of Korean descent. His parents are mother Jing Ja Lee and father Soo Wong Lee,[1] a Taekwondo grandmaster. He spent a portion of his youth teaching at Lee's Tae Kwon Do, his family's business in Napa, California. Lee attended UC Berkeley on an athletic scholarship for the Cal Taekwondo team.

Career

He had supporting roles on 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).[2] 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".[3]

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. Their first child, a son, was born in June 2013.[4]

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
2010–2014 Hawaii Five-0 Sang Min 6 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 Keniuchio Harada
2013 Make Your Move 3D Kaz
2014 True Blood Mr. Gus 5 episodes
2014 Intelligence Jin Cong 2 episodes
2015 San Andreas Filming
2015 Power/Rangers General Klank Short film

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 [5]

References

  1. ↑ http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2000-11-25/news/0011250288_1_parents-nash-bridges-family
  2. ↑ Eisenberg, Eric (July 9, 2012). "The Wolverine Adds Will Yun Lee as Silver Samurai". Cinema Blend
  3. ↑ "Sexiest Man Alive 2007: Will Yun Lee". People. November 14, 2008.
  4. ↑ Wihlborg, Ulrica (October 31, 2010). "Nick Lachey Is Real-Life Wedding Singer". People magazine.
  5. ↑ 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.
    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.

External links