Lee Se-hee

Lee Se-hee is a South Korean actor whose wider public breakthrough came with the KBS2 weekend drama Young Lady and Gentleman (2021–22). In that series, she played Park Dan-dan, a young woman who becomes a live-in tutor for the children of widowed businessman Lee Young-guk, played by Ji Hyun-woo. The drama’s central romance follows the initially uneasy relationship between Dan-dan and Young-guk as their households become intertwined. The role gave Lee a sustained leading part in a long-running terrestrial television production, rather than a brief appearance or supporting turn. At the 2021 KBS Drama Awards, Lee received the Best New Actress award for Young Lady and Gentleman. She and Ji Hyun-woo also received the Best Couple Award for their work in the series. The recognition was tied specifically to her portrayal of Park Dan-dan, not simply to her presence on the KBS schedule. Young Lady and Gentleman was a major ratings success for KBS. Its final episode recorded a 38.2 percent nationwide rating, according to Nielsen Korea, reflecting its considerable audience. Before that breakthrough, Lee appeared in several television projects as her profile developed. Her credits include Hospital Playlist (2020), the medical drama set around doctors who have been friends since medical school, and Live On (2020), a youth drama centered on a high-school broadcasting club. She also appeared in the web drama Kiss Goblin (2020). These productions place her early screen work across hospital drama, school drama, and fantasy web storytelling, before she carried the extensive episode commitment of Park Dan-dan. Lee returned to a principal broadcast role in KBS2’s Bad Prosecutor (2022). She played Shin A-ra, a senior prosecutor working alongside the unconventional prosecutor Jin Jung, portrayed by Doh Kyung-soo. The series frames their partnership within cases involving prosecutors and powerful figures inside the legal system. Her casting as Shin A-ra moved her from the family-romance setting of Young Lady and Gentleman to a contemporary prosecution drama, with a character whose professional position is central to the story. In 2024, Lee joined the JTBC series A Virtuous Business, a period comedy-drama set in rural Geumje in 1992. The show follows women who begin selling adult products door to door during a period when such commerce was socially taboo in South Korea. Lee played Lee Ju-ri, one of the women involved in the venture. Across these identified roles, Lee’s record shows a clear progression from ensemble and web projects to award-winning television.