Lee Joo-young

The Rise of the Short Hair

Lee Joo-young never set out to become famous when she enrolled at Kyung Hee University to study Physical Education. That decision seemed final until frequent visits to the department's theater changed her path. In 2011, she decided to switch majors and focus on acting because she felt sports weren't enough to express herself.

Her first steps came in the independent circuit in Seoul. She shot short films without pay and worked on productions where she helped out with the wardrobe herself. In 2016 she joined the cast of Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-joo, and her tough-girl image with sensitive undertones started making waves on social media.

And audiences connected with her right away.

But her real breakout in popularity came in 2020 with Itaewon Class. She played Ma Hyeon-yi, a transgender woman who worked as a cook in a bar. It was a logistical and emotional challenge. The series reached a 16.5% audience share in its final episode, and Lee Joo-young became a reference point for a generation looking for different faces on Korean television.

Her Move to Independent Film

In 2019, she starred in Baseball Girl, and the physical effort was real. She trained for months with professional players so her pitches on screen would look convincing. She refused to use stunt doubles for the sports action scenes. Her portrayal of Joo Soo-in earned her the Rising Star award at the Asian American Film Festival in New York.

International industry attention came her way when Hirokazu Kore-eda cast her in Broker in 2022. She shared scenes with Song Kang-ho and Bae Doona on a shoot that ended up in the official selection at Cannes. In the film, she played a young detective who questioned the morality of the adoption system. It was her first major European red carpet, and international critics praised her ability to hold her own on screen alongside veterans of Asian cinema.

And she did it without losing her indie edge.

In 2023 she shot Green Night alongside Chinese actress Fan Bingbing. The film explored a tense, dark relationship between two women trying to escape their pasts in the underworld of Seoul. The script demanded absolute restraint, and Lee Joo-young used body language to convey fear and attraction with barely any dialogue.

Large-Scale Productions

In 2024 she joined the cast of The 8 Show, a Netflix production that played with suspense and extreme social criticism. The shoot was intense because of the psychological weight of the characters trapped in an eight-story building. She played the character on the second floor, and her physical presence once again drove her scenes.

Lee Joo-young prefers to work on projects that challenge the established order. She often chooses scripts where a character's gender is not the only defining trait. In 2025, she is scheduled to take part in the drama I'm Home, a story centered on non-biological family bonds. She remains affiliated with Ace Factory, which manages her advertising contracts and her appearances at international festivals.

The shoot for her latest series in 2024 lasted exactly 112 days of actual production.