Profile and Facts
Facts:
His nicknames are Chemi-Shin, The Top Hallyu Star, Long-legged Oppa, and King of Ads. Lee Min-ho has an older sister named Lee Yun-Jeong who serves as CEO of MYM Entertainment. His mother is a housewife and his father is a businessman. When he was a child, he wanted to become a professional football player. He was selected for the youth football class of South Korean manager and former professional player Cha Bum-Kun. In 5th grade, this dream ended due to an injury. In his second year of high school, he turned to acting. He said that his first love was a campus friend when he was 20 years old. He speaks Korean and English. When he opened a Facebook and Twitter account, he said that he realized how important English is. After that, he started to study English more seriously.
He started acting in minor roles in several television dramas such as Nonstop 5 and Recipe of Love. Lee Min-ho made his official acting debut in the 2003 television series Secret Campus. He first gained widespread fame in parts of Asia and in Korea with his role as Gu Jun-Pyo in Boys Before Flowers in 2009. However, he received his first leading role in the high-school drama Mackerel Run in 2007. He is a big Leonardo DiCaprio fan, and that’s why he dreamed of playing in a Hollywood movie. He won a Best New Actor award at the 45th Baeksang Arts Awards. Lee Min-ho has won 30 awards in total. Lee Min Ho’s net worth is estimated to be $12 Million. His salary is estimated to be $58,700 per drama episode. He was paid 60 million won or $53,148 for his role in the drama Personal Taste. Lee Min-ho released his first album My Everything in May 2013. He was in a serious car accident while riding with fellow actor Jung Il-woo in 2006. The accident made him go on hiatus for recovery. He revealed that he smokes although he’s not smoking heavy. He also said that he is not a strong drinker. He can only tolerate drinking 2 glasses of alcohol and 4 beer cups of soju. Lee Min-ho spends his free time bowling and playing games whenever he hangs out with his friends. Lee Min Ho is best friends with Kim Bum, fellow Boys Before Flowers actor. His favorite food is grilled meat. His favorite colors are black and gray. His favorite singer is Im Jae-bum. His favorite sport is soccer. Lee Min-ho said that he has the habit of talking while he sleeps. In March 2015, it was revealed that he was dating Bae Suzy. Unfortunately, the couple broke up in November 2017. Lee Min-ho’s ideal type of woman is not too tall since he’s tall himself and fair-skinned because he feels that he is a bit dark-skinned. He once mentioned Song Hye-kyo as his ideal type.
Career:
Early in his career, Lee Min-ho went by the stage name Lee Min because his agency thought his birth name was too ordinary. However, as his stage name was pronounced and written in Hangul in the same way as the Korean word imin, which means “immigration”, he later said it was difficult to find himself in Internet search results. He eventually went back to using his original name. In 2008, he appeared in various roles on television. This is when his career began to go up. He starred in the dramas Get Up and I Am Sam and two movies, Public Enemy Returns and Our School’s E.T. During the shooting of Our School’s E.T., he became good friends with actor Kim Su-ro who later praised him on a variety show: “I recognize a star when I see one. When I was doing Our School’s E.T., I knew that Lee Min-ho would become one of the top actors in the country”. And, his preposition later became true.
