Lee Kwang-soo South Korean Actor Known for The Innocent Man

Early life

Lee Kwang-soo is a South Korean actor, entertainer and model, born on 14 July 1985 in Namyangju. He studied at the Dong-Ah Institute of Media and Arts. He started out in entertainment as a model in 2007.

Career

Lee's acting debut came in 2008 in the sitcom Here He Comes, and he then appeared in High Kick Through the Roof. His profile grew after he joined the SBS variety programme Running Man in June 2010. He remained a regular cast member for more than ten years, and his last recording took place in May 2021, with his final broadcast appearance aired in June of that year. In 2010 and 2011 he received the SBS Entertainment Awards' New Star Award and its award for best newcomer in variety.

In 2012 he took supporting parts in the romantic comedies Wonderful Radio and All About My Wife and in the thriller The Scent, and that year he appeared opposite Song Joong-ki, his friend and Running Man colleague, in the television drama The Innocent Man. In 2013 he voiced Marco, the lead of the animated film Maritime Police Marco, and played the villainous Prince Imhae in the period drama Goddess of Fire, having said publicly that he wanted to try an antagonist.

His first major film role was in the 2014 neo-noir Confession, about three friends whose bond breaks after a murder. The same year he appeared in the medical drama It's Okay, That's Love and the film A Dynamite Family. In 2015 he played the lead in Collective Invention, which screened in the Vanguard section of the Toronto International Film Festival, and which gave him his first red carpet at an international festival. He also starred in the two-part drama Puck!, broadcast on 1 January 2016.

In 2016 he starred in tvN's Entourage, a Korean remake of the American series, and led the KBS sitcom The Sound of Your Heart, adapted from a webtoon, which drew a large online audience in both South Korea and China. He also appeared in Hwarang: The Poet Warrior Youth that year. In September 2017 he was confirmed as a fixed cast member of the Netflix variety show Busted!, and he returned for its third season in 2021.

He starred in Noh Hee-kyung's drama Live in 2018 as a police officer, and played a Mensa-level genius in the crime comedy The Accidental Detective 2: In Action. In 2019 he was in Inseparable Bros, in which he played Park Dong-goo, and in Tazza: One Eyed Jack. He then starred in The Pirates: The Last Royal Treasure, a sequel to a 2014 film, which was released in January 2022. Also in 2021 he appeared in the films Sinkhole and A Year-End Medley, and in 2022 he returned to television in the tvN drama The Killer's Shopping List.

More recent work includes The Manipulated, a Disney+ series in which he plays Baek Do-kyung, confirmed by his agency King Kong by Starship in November 2024; the Netflix thriller Karma in 2025, directed by Lee Il-hyung and based on a Kakao webtoon; and the series Gold Land, dated 2026. His listed screen credits total seven films and fourteen television series from 2010 to 2026. Ji Chang-wook, who appears with him in The Manipulated and Secret Love, and Doh Kyung-soo are the co-stars who recur most often.

Recognition

For Inseparable Bros, Lee won his first Baeksang Arts Award, in the Best Supporting Actor category, and was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Blue Dragon Film Awards. He received a second Blue Dragon nomination in the same category for Sinkhole. In 2015 he was appointed ambassador of the Korea Brand and Entertainment Expo and was commended by the trade minister for his role in promoting the Korean Wave.

Public roles

Lee served as Korea-Mekong Ambassador in 2021. As of October 2026 he had about 4.8 million followers on Instagram.