Lee Yo-won

Lee Yo-won is one of those South Korean actresses who makes you immediately understand why certain roles become career-defining. Her turn as Queen Seondeok in the 2009 MBC historical drama of the same name was a genuinely commanding performance — regal without being cold, emotionally complex in a way that carried a long, demanding series almost entirely on her shoulders. She had already won the Blue Dragon Film Award for Best New Actress back in 2001, so this was an actress with real foundation, not a flash in the pan. What I appreciate about her is that she never felt manufactured by the idol-to-actress pipeline; she built her craft the old-fashioned way, through Dankook University and actual screen time. Whether it's period drama or contemporary roles, she brings a quiet intensity that doesn't need to shout to fill a room.

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Name (English)

Lee Yo-won

Name (Japanese)

イ・ヨウォン

Reading

い・ようぉん

Born

April 9, 1980 (age 46)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Aries / Monkey

Origin

Seongnam, South Korea

Occupation

actor / film actor / model / television actor

High school

Donggwang High School

University

Dankook University

Awards & achievements

• 2001 Blue Dragon Film Award for Best New Actress

• Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/yowon_official/
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee%20Yo-won
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A4%E3%83%BB%E3%83%A8%E3%82%A6%E3%82%A9%E3%83%B3
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q485894

Tags

• actor
• film actor
• model

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.