Lee Yu-ri

The Phenomenon of 380,000 Votes

Lee Yu-ri stepped onto the set of School 4 in 2001 without suspecting that her face would end up becoming the barometer of audience ratings in South Korea. That debut was not a media explosion, but it helped establish a work ethic that kept her active for more than twenty years. In her early steps, she took supporting roles in dramas such as Loving You in 2002 and Precious Family in 2004. Yet she couldn't find the breakthrough needed to move beyond the middle ranks of the casts.

Korean television changed its pace with her.

Everything changed in 2014 with the premiere of Jang Bo-ri is Here!. His portrayal of the villain Yeon Min-jung was so visceral that Korean audiences developed an unprecedented love-hate relationship with the character. In Seoul's industry, it's rare for the antagonist to completely overshadow the story's hero. That year, Lee Yu-ri won the MBC Daesang (Grand Prize) thanks to massive support from viewers.

Received 380,000 direct votes at an awards ceremony where the technical jury usually had the final say.

The Mutation of Black Comedy

In 2017, she decided she didn't want to be just the country's official villain. She joined the cast of Father is Strange to explore a comedic side that many critics considered absent from her previous work. And the experiment paid off. Her role as a cynical, straight-talking lawyer allowed her to connect with a younger audience that hadn't seen her work in the previous decade.

Before filming Lie After Lie in 2020, the actress spent months studying the rhythm of suspense thrillers. The series became the most-watched drama in the history of the cable network Channel A up to that point. But Lee Yu-ri did not stop at dark drama. In 2022, she took on the challenge of Becoming Witch (also known as The Witch Is Alive), where physical comedy and social satire carried the weight of the plot.

Method always comes before ego.

In 2023, she took part in various variety shows where she showed a technical side about cooking and production logistics that surprised the industry. Lee Yu-ri married a theologian in 2010 and kept her private life out of the Seoul tabloids with iron discipline. By 2024, her filmography already exceeded thirty professional titles across television and film, without ever spending more than twelve consecutive months away from a film set.