The year he turned 19, he joined a theater company in Yeongju and debuted in the play Lithuania. He had found the company through a street poster recruiting members while retaking the college entrance exam. In 1991, at a Daegu director’s urging, he moved to the Daegu theater scene. His time in Daegu lasted 10 years, not counting military service.
In 1998, he performed in the play Bieonso. He says he acted in a Gyeongsang dialect and Daegu audiences connected with it strongly. In 1999, he married his wife, who had majored in dance. In 2001, he won the best acting award at the National Theater Festival for the play Pig Hunt.
In 2002, he left his family in Daegu and went to Seoul alone to work on the Daehangno stage. In 2003, he appeared in the play Geogi. In 2004, after a bit part on MBC Best Theater, TV work became more frequent, and in the film Father and Son: The Story of Mencius he played an unnamed gangster.
In 2008, he played Choi Man-ri in KBS The Great King, Sejong. Maeil Shinmun says he began to be treated a little differently from then on. In 2010, he caught viewers’ attention as Seol Joon-seok in MBC Pasta. In 2011, people called him by the name of his KBS Brain character, Go Jae-hak.
The breakthrough yearThe year he turned 44, he took his first lead role, in MBC Golden Time, 25 years after his debut. Several outlets describe the drama as the point he moved out of obscurity.
In 2013, The Attorney passed 10 million admissions. In 2014, he played Oh Sang-sik in tvN Misaeng: Incomplete Life. In 2015, he won best actor in TV at the Baeksang Arts Awards for Misaeng. In 2016, he took his first lead role on screen in Sori: Voice from the Heart.
In 2017, The Sheriff in Town reached No. 1 at the box office. In 2018, he walked the Cannes Film Festival red carpet for the first time with The Spy Gone North and won best actor at the Daejong Film Awards that year. In 2019, he won best actor in film at the Baeksang Arts Awards for the same film. In 2020, he played a character modeled on former president Park Chung-hee in The Man Standing Next.
In 2021, he starred in Miracle: Letters to the President, set in his hometown, Bonghwa. In 2022, Juvenile Justice and Reborn Rich followed one after the other. In 2023, he won best actor in TV at the Baeksang awards again for Reborn Rich, and 12.12: The Day passed 10 million admissions. In 2025, he won best supporting actor at the Blue Dragon Film Awards for the first time, for No Other Choice. In 2026, he won best supporting actor at the Baeksang awards for the same film and appeared in the Netflix series Teach You a Lesson.
Lee Sung-min (born Dec 4, 1968) debuted in the play Lithuania in 1987, the year he turned 19, and became known when he took his first lead role in MBC Golden Time on Jul 9, 2012, the year he turned 44. He won his first Baeksang Arts Awards prize in 2015, the year he turned 47.
Ages are by calendar year (the year minus the birth year), birthdays aside.