Han Ye-seul

This is a Korean name; the family name is Kim. In stage/pen name, the surname is Han.

Han Ye-seul
File:Han Ye Seul.jpg
Born	Leslie Kim (1981-09-18) 18 September 1981 Los Angeles, California, United States
Nationality	South Korean
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2001–present
Agent	KeyEast
Korean name
Hangul	한예슬
Revised Romanization	Han Ye-seul
McCune–Reischauer	Han Yesŭl
Birth name
Hangul	김예슬이
Revised Romanization	Gim Yeseuri
McCune–Reischauer	Kim Yesŭri

Han Ye-seul (born Leslie Kim on 18 September 1981) is an American-born South Korean actress. She made her acting debut in the sitcom Nonstop 4 (2003), and has since played leading roles in television dramas such as Couple or Trouble (2006), Tazza (2008), and Birth of a Beauty (2014), as well as the films Miss Gold Digger (2007) and Penny Pinchers (2011).

Early life

Leslie Kim (or Kim Ye-seul-i in Korean) was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She attended Cerritos High School and graduated from Cerritos College with an associate degree in Computer Graphics. She is fluent in both English and Korean.

Career

Acting debut

She began her modeling career in South Korea after winning the SBS Supermodel Contest in 2001. Under the stage name Han Ye-seul, she made her acting debut in the popular sitcom Nonstop 4 in 2003. Han quickly rose to fame, and she renounced her U.S. citizenship in 2004 and became a naturalized South Korean citizen to continue establishing herself in Korean entertainment. But her performances in Forbidden Love (2004) and That Summer's Typhoon (2005) received poor reviews, with critics dismissing her as primarily a commercial model and not a real actress.

Breakthrough

Han proved her detractors wrong with Couple or Trouble (also known as Fantasy Couple, 2006), a remake of Overboard written by the Hong Sisters. Playing a spoiled heiress who becomes an amnesiac after a yacht accident, Han was praised for her comic timing and the series was a hit.

She further embraced the screwball comedy genre with her first film Miss Gold Digger (2007). Despite the film's lackluster box office, Han's portrayal of an advertising executive who juggles four different men in order to catch the ideal husband won her several Best New Actress accolades from local award-giving bodies, including the prestigious Grand Bell Awards and Blue Dragon Film Awards.

Han next starred in Tazza (2008), a TV adaptation of Huh Young-man's manhwa of the same name about gamblers and card sharps. The Lee Kyung-hee-penned Will It Snow for Christmas?, a melodrama about childhood sweethearts who reunite as adults, followed in 2009.

Spy Myung-wol controversy

In 2011, Han was cast as the titular character in Spy Myung-wol, as a North Korean agent on a mission to kidnap a top South Korean Hallyu star, who ends up falling for him. But the series gained notoriety when Han failed to show up for her scheduled filming on August 14-15 and instead flew to Los Angeles on August 16; it was the first instance of a leading actor abruptly leaving in the middle of a Korean drama shoot. Her then-agency SidusHQ cited conflicts with television director Hwang In-hyuk over her hectic working conditions, and that exhaustion had compromised her judgment. Han's absence effectively halted production, and the KBS network lambasted her actions as "unilateral, irresponsible and will not be tolerated," while Lee Kim Productions threatened legal action. After extensive press coverage, Han returned to Korea and continued filming Spy Myung-wol on August 18. Upon arrival at Incheon International Airport, she apologized but maintained that her demands had been legitimate, "I want to believe that I did the right thing." Han drew harsh criticism from TV industry professionals and viewers, but some fans defended her, saying the stressful Korean drama live-shoot system was at fault.

Romantic comedy film Penny Pinchers was released two months after Spy Myung-wol finished airing. In it, Han shed her glamorous image to play an extremely frugal woman who considers love a frivolous expense and teaches an unemployed playboy the art of penny pinching.

Comeback

After the Spy Myung-wol fiasco, public backlash forced Han to go on a three-year hiatus from acting.

In late 2014, she made a successful comeback in Birth of a Beauty, where Han played a warm-hearted ajumma who overcomes her husband's infidelity by undergoing a head-to-toe makeover involving plastic surgery and weight loss.

Personal life

On 2 May 2011, Han hit a man surnamed Do on the hip with the wing mirror of her Porsche while driving into the parking lot of her home in an apartment building in Samseong-dong. Do sustained minor injuries and Han's lawyers offered him ₩5 million in compensation, but Do claimed that she had fled the scene. Her then-agency SidusHQ denied this, saying she had apologized and checked if he was okay (but did not step out of her vehicle). After an investigation, police cleared Han of the hit-and-run allegations.

Han has been dating YG Entertainment record producer Teddy Park since May 2013.

In January 2015, the FSS included Han in a list of people who were found to have violated the foreign currency-related law by failing to report their asset acquisition (such as real estate overseas) to relevant authorities. This referred to a commercial building in Koreatown, Los Angeles that Han had bought in 2011, but her agency KeyEast issued a statement that the omission had been a technical mistake, because Han had transferred the building's ownership to a company in which she was the major shareholder and was unaware that she should report it.

Filmography

Television drama

Year	Title	Role	Network
2003	Nonstop 4	Han Ye-seul	MBC
2004	Forbidden Love	Chae-yi	KBS2
	Nonstop 5	Han Ye-seul (cameo)	MBC
2005	That Summer's Typhoon	Han Eun-bi	MBC
2006	Couple or Trouble	Anna Jo / Na Sang-shil	MBC
2008	Tazza	Lee Nan-sook / Mi-na	SBS
2009	Will It Snow for Christmas?	Han Ji-wan	SBS
2011	Spy Myung-wol	Han Myung-wol	KBS2
2014	Birth of a Beauty	Sara / Sa Geum-ran	SBS
2016	Madame Antoine	Go Hye Rim	JTBC

Film

Year	Title	Role
2007	Miss Gold Digger	Shin Mi-soo
2009	Monsters vs. Aliens	Susan Murphy/Ginormica (voice, Korean dubbed)
2011	Penny Pinchers	Gu Hong-sil

Music video

Year	Song Title	Artist
2003	"With Me"	Wheesung
2010	"Love Song"	Rain

Variety show

Year	Title	Network	Notes
2004-2005	Section TV	MBC	Host
2004	전파견문록	MBC	Guest, episode 233
2004-2005	Inkigayo (Popular Music)	SBS	Host
2004	MBC Gayo Daejejeon	MBC	Host
2005	Good Morning	SBS	Guest, episode 2157
2006	MBC Drama Awards	MBC	Host
2007	Ya Shim Man Man	SBS	Guest, episode 239
	Golden Fishery: The Knee-Drop Guru	MBC	Guest, episode 70
	She's Olive: Han Ye-seul in L.A.	O'live
	Sang Sang Plus	KBS2	Guest, episode 160
	Entertainment Weekly: Guerrilla Date	KBS2	Guest, episode 1203
2008	24 Hour Famine	SBS	Guest
	Entertainment Weekly: Guerrilla Date	KBS2	Guest, episode 1252
	SBS Drama Awards	SBS	Host
2009	46th Grand Bell Awards	SBS	Host
2010	4th Asian Film Awards		Host
2014	Running Man	SBS	Guest, episode 219

Discography

Year	Title	Artist	Notes
2004	"You Are Different"	Han Ye-seul	Track 6 on Nonstop 4 OST
	"Say It"	Shinhwa feat. Han Ye-seul	Track 11 on Winter Story 2004–2005
2005	"Memory"	Han Ye-seul	Track 2 on That Summer's Typhoon OST
2007	"Make Me Shine"	Han Ye-seul	Track 1 on Miss Gold Digger OST
2009	"Love Class"	Mighty Mouth feat. Han Ye-seul	Track 2 on Love Class EP

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Nominated work	Result
2001	SBS Supermodel Contest	Juliet Award	N/A	Won
2004	6th Mnet Asian Music Awards	Best OST	"You Are Different" - Nonstop 4	Nominated
	MBC Entertainment Awards	Top Excellence Award, Actress in a Sitcom/Comedy	Nonstop 4	Won
2006	MBC Drama Awards	Excellence Award, Actress	Couple or Trouble	Won
		Popularity Award, Actress		Won
		Best Couple Award with Oh Ji-ho		Won
2007	43rd Baeksang Arts Awards	Best Actress (TV)		Nominated
		Most Popular Actress (TV)		Won
2008	3rd Asia Model Festival Awards	Model Star Award	N/A	Won
	44th Baeksang Arts Awards	Best New Actress (Film)	Miss Gold Digger	Won
	45th Grand Bell Awards	Best New Actress		Won
		BMW Popularity Award, Actress		Won
	29th Blue Dragon Film Awards	Best New Actress		Won
	31st Golden Cinematography Awards:	Best New Actress		Won
	7th Korean Film Awards	Best New Actress		Nominated
	SBS Drama Awards	Excellence Award, Actress in a Special Planning Drama	Tazza	Won
		Top 10 Stars		Won
2009	45th Baeksang Arts Awards	Best Actress (TV)		Nominated
2014	SBS Drama Awards	Excellence Award, Actress in a Drama Special	Birth of a Beauty	Won
		Top 10 Stars		Won
		Best Couple Award with Joo Sang-wook		Won
2015	15th Hwajeong Awards	Best Global Actress		Won

External links

• Han Ye-seul on Cyworld
• Han Ye-seul at HanCinema
• Han Ye-seul at the Korean Movie Database
• Han Ye-seul at the Internet Movie Database