The breakthrough yearThe year she turned 16, she debuted in Jang Sun-woo’s film A Petal. At its release, Yonhap reported that the lead actress drew much praise, and that year she won Best New Actress at the Grand Bell Awards and the Blue Dragon Film Awards.
The year she turned 19, she released her first album in October and began her career as a singer. The title track “Wa” rose to No. 2 on the music chart, and in December she won Best New Artist at the Seoul Music Awards. Maeil Shinmun writes that this album made her name properly known. In 2000, she released her second album and starred in the film Harpy. In 2001, she appeared in SBS’s Beautiful Days, her first drama in about three years, and released her third album in October. In November 2002, she released the new album I Love Natural.
In 2005, she held her first solo concert at Shibuya AX in Tokyo. In 2008, she released a new album in China, and in October performed at the Jeju Korea-China song festival. In 2009, she sang “Senorita” with Jun Jin on the Infinite Challenge Olympic Highway duet song festival.
In 2011, she appeared in Park Chan-wook’s short film Night Fishing. In 2012, she played a mother in the film Juvenile Offender. In 2014, she appeared as Lady Jeong in The Admiral: Roaring Currents. In 2015, the year she turned 35, she won Best Actress at the Blue Dragon Film Awards for Alice in Earnestland, 19 years after her Best New Actress award.
In 2016, she played Hee-jin in the film Split. In 2017, she played Oh Mal-nyeon in The Battleship Island. In 2019, she married, and in December joined KBS2’s Stars’ Top Recipe at Fun-Staurant. In 2020, she played Min-jung in the film Peninsula.
In 2022, she appeared in Park Chan-wook’s Decision to Leave. In 2024, she played Choi Jun-kyung in Netflix’s Parasyte: The Grey. In 2025, she became a film director with the short film Kkotnori Ganda, and in December won the Top Excellence Award at the KBS Entertainment Awards.
In 2026, her second short film, Seonginsik, was invited to the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, and in September she received the Emerging Culture Award at the Gender Equality Culture Awards.
Lee Jung-hyun (born Feb 7, 1980) debuted in the film A Petal on Apr 5, 1996, the year she turned 16, and became known through it. She released her first album and started out as a singer in Oct 1999, the year she turned 19, and won Best Actress at the Blue Dragon Film Awards in 2015, the year she turned 35.
Ages are by calendar year (the year minus the birth year), birthdays aside.