Early life and education
Lee was born in Seoul, South Korea, on September 30, 1986. When he was six years old, his parents moved the family to Auckland, New Zealand. [3] [4] When he was eight, his family moved to Los Angeles, California. [5]
Lee studied psychology at the University of California, Berkeley from 2004 to 2008. [3] [5] [6] During college, Lee was part of a college chapter of Liberty in North Korea (LiNK) and interned at their headquarters. [5] [7] He served as an elected senator at the Associated Students of the University of California (the students association of the University of California, Berkeley) from 2005 to 2006, while being affiliated with the Student Action party. [8] [9] [10] He ran for re-election for the 2006–2007 academic year as "Ki Hong (Donkey Kong) Lee" with the affiliation with The Mario Party, but failed to garner the necessary votes for the position. [11] [12]
Lee began acting in middle school, doing skits at church retreats. [13] [14] He initially wanted to become a teacher, [15] but was inspired to pursue acting after watching Aaron Yoo in the film Disturbia (2007) while in college. [6] After college, he worked at his parents' sundubu-jjigae restaurant, Tofu Village, in Little Tokyo while pursuing acting. [5] [13]
Career
Lee made his stage debut in Wrinkles, presented by East West Players and directed by Jeff Liu. It opened on February 16, 2011 and closed on March 13, 2011 at the David Henry Hwang Theater at the Union Center for the Arts in Downtown Los Angeles. [16]
Since 2012, Lee has collaborated with Wong Fu Productions (WFP) featuring in more than five short videos including the Away We Happened mini-series. On June 26, 2014, it was announced that Lee was cast in WFP's first feature film Everything Before Us , which focuses on "two couples at different stages of their relationships, set in a world where "all relationship activity is documented and monitored by the Department of Emotional Integrity (DEI)" and is assigned a number like a credit score." The film also featured The Tomorrow People 's Aaron Yoo and Veep 's Randall Park. [17] [18]
In 2013, Lee made his feature-length film debut in the YouTube two-part film adaptation of Yellowface, from playwright David Henry Hwang. [19] It was published by the Asian American-centric YOMYOMF network . [19] On April 18, 2013, director Wes Ball announced that Lee had been cast in The Maze Runner as Minho, the keeper of the Runners in charge of navigating and mapping the Maze. [20]
In fall 2017, Lee played the lead in Julia Cho's play, Office Hour, alongside actress Sue Jean Kim in the New York premiere of the production at the Public Theater. [21]
In June 2020, Lee signed an exclusive contract with Saram Entertainment to expand his activities not just in South Korea, but in Asia as a whole. [22]
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