Born in 1992, LEE Joo-young had first gone to Kyung Hee University to study physical education with no clear objective in mind, but as she got into the habit of watching a play every week in Daehangno, Seoul’s theatre district, it occurred to her one day that she might as well give acting a try. She eventually transferred to the dramatics department and, starting with the short <Encounter> in 2012, has been cast in several short and feature indie films, such as in &l...More

Born in 1992, LEE Joo-young had first gone to Kyung Hee University to study physical education with no clear objective in mind, but as she got into the habit of watching a play every week in Daehangno, Seoul’s theatre district, it occurred to her one day that she might as well give acting a try. She eventually transferred to the dramatics department and, starting with the short <Encounter> in 2012, has been cast in several short and feature indie films, such as in <Beauty of a Journey> (2014). Renowned indie director ZHANG Lu took notice of her in 2013 when he watched the short <Sisters on the Road>, which was selected by the Busan Peace Film Festival the year he was a jury member, and offered to meet her. The two quickly discovered they had similar tastes in films and became friends, and so ZHANG thought of her for the role of one of the patrons of the watering hole and friend of the protagonist in <A Quiet Dream> (2016), which was chosen as the closing film of the Busan International Film Festival. 2016 was a busy year for LEE and so the public of the festival had more than one occasion to discover this new actor, as she starred in the indie favorite <Jane> (2016) and served as a support character in <Jamsil> (2016), another standout indie film. She followed it up with supporting parts in TV series <Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-joo> (2016-2017) and <Something in the Rain> (2018). She found success in Busan again in 2018, when she received one of the two Actors of the Year Awards (both handed out to actresses that year) for the mystery drama <Maggie> (2018). Also in 2018, she took on her first role in a mainstream film, playing alongside SON Ye-jin and HYUN Bin in the thriller <THE NEGOTIATION> (2018). Less