이민호
Biography
If a viewer’s first encounter with Korean drama was a proud chaebol heir with a ridiculous hairstyle, there is a good chance Lee Min-ho was responsible. His Gu Jun-pyo in Boys Over Flowers (2009) remains a useful starting point for understanding his career, but it is only one version of the leading man he has played across romance, action, fantasy and international television.
His route into acting was not a straightforward child-star story. Before he pursued performance seriously, Lee had wanted to play football. He accumulated early screen experience in projects including Secret Campus and Mackerel Run, then found the part that moved him beyond promising newcomer status. As Gu Jun-pyo, the arrogant leader of the F4, he helped make Boys Over Flowers a landmark in late-2000s Hallyu viewing. The series brought considerable attention, along with newcomer recognition at the 2009 Baeksang Arts Awards.
He did not simply repeat that school-romance formula. Personal Taste (2010) placed him opposite Son Ye-jin in a lighter adult romantic comedy. A year later, City Hunter required a different presence: Lee Yoon-seong is a highly trained man pursuing revenge while moving through a world of secrecy and political danger. The historical fantasy Faith followed in 2012, with Lee playing General Choi Young. His return to an immensely wealthy character in The Heirs (2013), as Kim Tan, showed how successfully he could make a familiar genre central to another widely discussed drama.
Fantasy became an especially visible part of his later work. In The Legend of the Blue Sea (2016–17), he played con artist Heo Joon-jae and a Joseon-era counterpart opposite Jun Ji-hyun. In The King: Eternal Monarch (2020), his Emperor Lee Gon crossed between parallel worlds, asking him to carry romance alongside a more elaborate premise. Those shows have different rhythms, but both depend on his ability to anchor an extravagant setup in a recognizable romantic protagonist.
His role as Koh Hansu in Pachinko changed the conversation. The character is neither a conventional fantasy prince nor an uncomplicated romantic hero, and the international production offered him room for a more troubling, layered screen presence. He also appeared in the space-set series When the Stars Gossip (2025). For viewers tracing Lee Min-ho’s dramas, the compelling story is not just his early popularity; it is his repeated movement between familiar leading-man expectations and projects willing to complicate them.
Dramas
Drama credits will appear here once they are connected.