Lee Young Ae is a celebrated and award-winning South Korean actress. Born on January 31, 1971, she is best known for her roles in the historical television drama “Jewel in the Palace” (2003) and the film “Sympathy for Lady Vengeance” (2005), both of which garnered many acting accolades for Lee Young Ae. She began her career in 1991 as a model and then made her acting debut in the 1993 television drama “How’s Your Husband?” She won the Best New Actress award for that role at the 1994 SBS Drama Awards. After a 13-year hiatus, Lee Young Ae returned to the small screen with a dual role in drama “Saimdang, Light’s Diary” in 2017. Lee Young Ae married Korean-American businessman Jeong Ho Young in 2009. In addition to acting, Lee Young Ae is known for her charity work, including as an UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.

Lee Young Ae

JTBC

Once bullied for her looks, Kang Mi Rae (Im Soo Hyang) undergoes a dramatic transformation through plastic surgery, only to face new challenges in college when people ridicule her for altering her appearance. Reconnecting with Do Kyung Suk (Cha Eun Woo), who values inner beauty over appearances, Mi Rae finds herself caught between external judgment and internal growth. As Kyung Suk stands up for her against harsh labels and superficial commentary, Mi Rae starts to reclaim her confidence and realizes that true beauty is about who you are on the inside… and starts to sense that she and Kyung Suk might become more than just friends. This 2018 Korean drama was adapted from the webtoon of the same name by Gi Maeng Gi and was directed by Choi Sung Bum.

My ID Is Gangnam Beauty

The Beauty Lovers

Can a secret diary shed light on the authenticity of a centuries-old painting? 

Seo Ji Yoon (Lee Young Ae) is an art history lecturer who has devoted the best years of her life to earning her Ph.D. and working under her mentor, department chairman Min Jung Hak (Choi Jong Hwan), in the hopes of being named a full-time professor at her university. 

When Jung Hak entrusts Ji Yoon to write the thesis for his find-of-the-century historical painting, “An Gyeon’s Mount Geumgang,” Ji Yoon is ecstatic and finally feels like she is about to earn her professorship. But in a matter of days, her whole world comes crashing down around her. 

First, her husband, Jung Min Seok (Lee Hae Young), suddenly becomes a fugitive when his company comes under investigation and the Russian Mafia comes after him for dirty money, forcing Ji Yoon, her son, and her mother-in-law, Kim Jung Hee (Kim Hae Sook), to be kicked out of their home. Then, Ji Yoon’s career comes to a crashing halt when grad student Han Sang Hyun (Yang Se Jong) publicly challenges the authenticity of the Mount Geumgang painting and Ji Yoon does not adequately defend Jung Hak’s reputation. 

An enraged Jung Hak has Ji Yoon fired and ostracized from the art history community. At the bottom of her life, Ji Yoon discovers the secret diary of Shin Saimdang (1504-1551), a Korean artist, writer, calligraphist and poet who was the mother of Yi I, one of the two most prominent Korean Confucian scholars during the Joseon Dynasty. The diary sheds new light on the life of Saimdang (also played by Lee Young Ae, her relationship with painter Lee Gyeom (Song Seung Heon), and the Mount Geumgang painting. 

With the help of Sang Hyun and her best friend, Go Hye Jung (Park Jun Myun), an antiquities researcher, can Ji Yoon get her life and career back? 

“Saimdang, Light’s Diary” is a 2017 South Korean drama series directed by Yoon Sang Ho.

Saimdang, Light's Diary

Young Jang Geum is caught up in palace strife, loses her parents, and enters the palace as a court lady of the royal kitchen. Jang Geum, possessing the finest palate, becomes a court lady of the royal kitchen recognized for her abilities in the palace. With her food, she pleases the royal family who has abstained from food and drink or is ill and saves the royal family fallen into crisis. She leaves the palace caught up in incidents that slander her, but Jang Geum overcomes adversity and begins life in the palace again as a nurse. With her special qualities of a challenging spirit and tenacity, Jang Geum masters remarkable medical treatments and begins to earn the king's trust.

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