| William Yun Lee | |||||||||
| Birth Name: | Lee Sang-Wook | ||||||||
| Native Name: | 이상욱 | ||||||||
| Native Name Lang: | ko | ||||||||
| Birth Date: | 22 March 1971 | ||||||||
| Birth Place: | Arlington, Virginia, U.S. | ||||||||
| Yearsactive: | 1997–present | ||||||||
| Alma Mater: | University of California, Berkeley | ||||||||
| Children: | 1 | ||||||||
| Module: |
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William Yun Lee (born March 22, 1971) is an American actor and martial artist. He is best known for his roles as Danny Woo in the supernatural drama Witchblade and Jae Kim in the sci-fi series Bionic Woman. He has also appeared in the films Die Another Day (2002), Elektra (2005) and The Wolverine (2013). He had a recurring role as Sang Min in Hawaii Five-0, played the original body of series protagonist Takeshi Kovacs in Altered Carbon, appeared as Marvelous Man in The Guardians of Justice (2022) and voiced Wei Shen in the game Sleeping Dogs (2012). From 2018 to 2024, he has appeared on the ABC medical drama The Good Doctor playing Dr. Alex Park.
Lee was born in Arlington, Virginia to Korean parents. His parents are mother Jung Ja Lee and father Soo Woong Lee, a Taekwondo grandmaster.[1] He first began training at just three years old and spent a portion of his youth teaching at Lee's Tae Kwon Do training facility, his family's business in Napa, California. He re-earned his black belt in Taekwondo in 2013 and documented the journey in a three-part video series titled Back to Black: The Training of Will Yun Lee, where his father made an appearance.[2]
Lee spent his youth moving across the United States and has attended 23 schools.[3]
Lee attended UC Berkeley with a full athletic scholarship to study political science and ethnic studies.[4]
Lee had supporting roles in high-profile films such as Die Another Day, Torque, The King of Fighters, and Elektra. He has also acted on FX Network's miniseries Thief and ABC Family's miniseries Fallen. He guest starred in Hawaii Five-0 as recurring character Sang Min, and in True Blood as Mr. Gus. He also played Kenuichio Harada in James Mangold's The Wolverine (2013).[5] In 2018, Lee appeared in the Netflix science fiction series Altered Carbon as the original body of protagonist Takeshi Kovacs.[6]
Lee provides the voice of Wei Shen, the protagonist in Square Enix's Hong Kong open-world crime game Sleeping Dogs.
In 2002, People named Lee as one of their "50 Most Beautiful People", which quickly led to high-profile roles. In November 2007, he was named one of the 15 "Sexiest Men Alive".[7]
Lee is among the actors, producers and directors interviewed in Jeff Adachi's 2006 documentary The Slanted Screen, about the representation of Asian and Asian-American men in Hollywood. He was featured in the music video of Mariah Carey's "Boy (I Need You)" as well as Ice Cube's "Roll Call".
In October 2010, Lee married actress Jennifer Birmingham in Shreveport, Louisiana.[8] Their son, Cash, was born in June 2013.[9] Cash was diagnosed with Moyamoya disease, a rare disorder of the cerebral blood vessels, at the age of three.
| Year | Film | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Gung Fu: The New Dragon | Danny | ||
| What's Cooking? | Jimmy Nguyen | |||
| 2002 | Die Another Day | Colonel Tan-Sun Moon | ||
| 2002 | Four Reasons | Buddha | Direct-to-video | |
| 2002 | Face | Daniel Chang | ||
| 2004 | Torque | Val | ||
| 2005 | Elektra | Kirigi | ||
| 2006 | The Seed | Ken Marcado | Short film | |
| 2007 | Hers | Lucas | ||
| 2008 | 6th and Santa Fe | Short film | ||
| 2010 | The King of Fighters | Iori Yagami | ||
| 2011 | Where the Road Meets the Sun | Takashi | ||
| Setup | Joey | |||
| Five Star Day | Samuel Kim | |||
| Oka! | Yi | |||
| 2012 | Total Recall | Marek | ||
| Red Dawn | Captain Cho | |||
| 2013 | Parasoldier Leader | Voice, direct-to-video[10] | ||
| Make Your Move 3D | Kaz | |||
| Lost for Words | Stanford | |||
| The Wolverine | Kenuichio Harada | |||
| Four Assassins | Marcus | |||
| 2015 | Spy | Timothy Cress | ||
| Power/Rangers | General Klank | Short film | ||
| San Andreas | Dr. Kim Park | |||
| 2016 | Restored Me | Trevor Kang | ||
| She Has a Name | Akkarat | |||
| 2017 | Unspoken: Diary of an Assassin | |||
| 2018 | Bangkok Love Story | |||
| Canal Street | Officer Hank Chu | |||
| Adi Shankar's Gods and Secrets | ||||
| Rampage | Agent Park | |||
| 2019 | Rogue Warfare | Daniel | ||
| 2021 | Wish Dragon | Mr. Wang | Voice |
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Nash Bridges | Quick | Episode: "Gun Play" |
| 1998 | Profiler | Andrew Young | Episode: "Ties That Bind" |
| Brimstone | Roger | Episode: "Poem" | |
| 1999 | V.I.P. | Bobby Wu | Episode: "Mao Better Blues" |
| The Disciples | Yoyo Lee | Television film | |
| 2000 | Witchblade | Danny Woo | Television film |
| 2001 | The Agency | Sam | Episode: "The Year of Living Dangerously" |
| 2001–2002 | Witchblade | Detective Danny Woo | 23 episodes |
| 2002 | Face | Daniel | |
| 2003–2004 | Detective Danny Chang | 2 episodes | |
| 2004 | Threat Matrix | Danny Roh | Episode: "PPX" |
| Law & Order | Hiroji Yoshida | Episode: "Gaijin" | |
| 2006 | Thief | Vincent Chan | Miniseries |
| Dennis Kim | Episode: "Time of Your Death" | ||
| Chai | Miniseries | ||
| 2007 | Hustle | Shiro | Episode: "Conning the Artists" |
| Fallen | Mazarin | 4 episodes | |
| Bionic Woman | Jae Kim | 7 episodes | |
| 2008 | Finnegan | Taki | Television film |
| 2010 | Boston's Finest | Eddie Lao | Television film |
| 2010–2017 | Hawaii Five-0 | Sang Min | 11 episodes |
| 2014 | The Novice | The Big Bang | Television film |
| True Blood | Mr. Gus | 5 episodes | |
| Intelligence | Jin Cong | 2 episodes | |
| 2015 | Kwon | 5 episodes | |
| Dr. Ken | Kevin O'Connell | Episode: "Kevin O'Connell" | |
| The Player | Liu Zeng | Episode: "House Rules" | |
| Warrior | Susano | ||
| 2016–2018 | Falling Water[11] | Taka | Main role |
| 2018–2020 | Altered Carbon | Original Takeshi Kovacs | Recurring role (Seasons 1–2); 12 episodes |
| 2018–2024 | The Good Doctor | Dr. Alex Park | Recurring (season 1) Main (seasons 2–7) |
| 2021–2022 | [12] | Joseph | Main role; voice |
| 2022 | The Guardians of Justice | Marvelous Man | Main Role |
| Year | Title | Role | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Pedestrians | ||
| 2012 | The Amazing Spider-Man | Additional Voices | |
| Infex | IngenBio Guard | ||
| Sleeping Dogs | Wei Shen | ||
| 2013 | Saints Row IV | The Voices of Virtual Steelport | |
| 2015 | Mortal Kombat X | Kung Lao | [13] [14] |
| 2020 | Masato Arakawa | ||
| 2024 |