Actor Spotlight: Lee Dong-Wook

Today’s pick for our Actor Spotlight is Lee Dong-Wook. Let’s take a closer look at some of his projects!

Actor debut

Lee Dong-Wook was born in 1981 and had his first role as an extra in ‘Sunday Best “Coaching”’. One of his first real roles was the one as Lee Kang San in the series ‘School’ that portrayed some of the real struggles the teenage youth was facing. A lot of big names got their start there.

You can see a little clip of him in the series at 3:55 in this video.

His first main roles were in the series ‘Loving You’ (2002), ‘Land of Wine’ (2002) and ‘Merry Go Round’ (2003). 

One of his big breakout roles was his portrayal of Seol Gong Chan in the hit-series ‘My Girl’ (2005). Here is the iconic OST. Can I just say, how extra is the hair. 

Other notable roles he portrayed in dramas like ‘Scent of a woman’, ‘Hotel King’, ‘Heaven’s Order’, ‘Life’, ‘Strangers from Hell’ and ‘Touch Your Heart’.

Range

What draws me to his acting is the fact that he can take on such diverse roles. He’s been anything from comic relief character, to the romantic lead, to crazy psychopath. Because of this, it’s always a pleasure to see his roles because you never know what role he’ll take on next. 

One of his biggest roles was the one from the hit-series ‘Goblin’ where he played the partly adorable, partly intimidating Grim Reaper alongside Gong Yoo and Kim Go-Eun.

My favorite role of his has to be his role in ‘Strangers From Hell’. It was so deliciously deranged, it was amazing. I’ve already written about this show a lot, but I just can’t get enough of it. Maybe it’s time for a re-watch. 

Hosting

The past couple of years, Lee Dong-Wook has also proven himself to be an interesting host. He was one of the hosts of ‘Produce X 101’.

He also had his own special talk show ‘Because I want to talk’ which I haven’t seen fully, but I have seen bits and pieces and it’s been on my to watch list since I saw the teaser.

This moment from the talk show where he recreates the iconic walking scene with Gong Yoo is hilarious and gives you a sense of the show’s sense of humour.

That’s it for this Actor Spotlight. You can find Lee Dong-Wook on Instagram here where you can see him in all his amazing photoshoots.