Lee Jong-suk: Every Drama and Film, and Where to Start
Have you ever met someone who seems light and easy on the surface, and only later realized how much they were carrying underneath?
That is the feeling many viewers get from Lee Jong-suk (also written Lee Jong Suk). He has the clean, bright face of a romantic lead, and he can play a charming, slightly awkward young man better than almost anyone. But again and again, his characters turn out to be holding a secret, a loss or a burden no one around them can see. That quiet weight is why his dramas stay with people long after the last episode.
Last updated: October 2026, ahead of the release of The Remarried Empress.
Who Is Lee Jong-suk?
Lee Jong-suk (이종석) was born on September 14, 1989, in Yongin, a city just south of Seoul. He started as a fashion model as a teenager, walking the runway at Seoul Fashion Week in 2005, and made his acting debut in 2010. His early years were spent in supporting roles, until the school drama School 2013 and the courtroom fantasy I Can Hear Your Voice turned him into one of the most watched young actors in Korea.
Since then, he has carried dramas across almost every genre: fantasy romance, medical thriller, legal drama, office romance and, most recently, royal fantasy. He has twice won the Daesang, the grand prize at a Korean TV station's year-end awards, for W in 2016 and Big Mouth in 2022.
What people notice first is his face, which is tall, slim and model-sharp. What they remember is something else: his eyes in close-up, and how much he can say without speaking. He is also unusually good at playing two things at once, a smile that covers fear or a joke that covers grief.
Where to Start, Depending on What You Want
- If you have never seen him: start with W. It shows his romantic side, his action side and his talent for quiet heartbreak in one story.
- If you love a strong story with a big heart: try Pinocchio. It is about family, truth and the damage careless words can do.
- If you are going through a hard stretch: Romance Is a Bonus Book is gentle, slow and kind. It is about a woman starting over, and he plays the friend who never stops believing in her.
- If you want something calm and everyday: Law and the City follows young lawyers through ordinary workdays and shared lunches. Nothing explodes, and that is the point.
- If you want to watch him grow: watch School 2013, then Big Mouth. The anxious teenager and the desperate grown man are a decade apart, and you can see everything he learned in between.
- Where I would not start: The Hymn of Death. It is beautifully made, but it is very short and very sad, and it makes more sense once you already know what he can do.
Every Drama and Film, Newest First
The Remarried Empress (2026)
Disney+ series, 10 episodes, based on a hugely popular Naver webtoon. He plays Heinrey, the crown prince of the rival Western Kingdom, who enters the story just as Empress Navier's (Shin Min-a) marriage to Emperor Sovieshu (Ju Ji-hoon) begins to fall apart. It is his first full royal fantasy role, and the trailer drew enormous attention before release. The series premieres on November 4, 2026, on Disney+, and on Hulu in the United States.
Law and the City (2025)
tvN, 12 episodes. Known in Korean as Seochodong, the name of Seoul's courthouse district. He plays Ahn Joo-hyung, a senior associate lawyer nine years into the same firm, logical, good at his job and quietly unwilling to take the next big step. It was written by a working lawyer and reunited him with director Park Seung-woo, who also worked on W.
How it was received: it ranked first in its time slot for every episode in Korea and placed in Viki's top five in several countries, which is unusual for such a quiet, everyday drama.
Big Mouth (2022)
MBC, 16 episodes. He plays Park Chang-ho, a struggling lawyer with a terrible win rate who is mistaken for a notorious con artist called Big Mouse and sent to prison. To survive, he has to become the man everyone already believes he is. Co-starring Yoona (Im Yoon-ah).
Why watch it: it was his first drama after a three-year break, and it shows a harder, more desperate side of him. It earned him his second Daesang.
Decibel (2022, film)
He plays Jeon Tae-seong, a mysterious bomber who targets a former navy commander (Kim Rae-won) with bombs set to explode when the surrounding noise gets too loud. It is a fast action thriller, and one of the few times he has played a man the audience is meant to fear.
Romance Is a Bonus Book (2019)
tvN, 16 episodes. He plays Cha Eun-ho, a bestselling author and the youngest editor-in-chief at a publishing house. When his old friend Kang Dan-i (Lee Na-young), a divorced mother who cannot find work, takes a job at his company while hiding her real résumé, he is the one person who sees her clearly. The role asks for patience and warmth more than drama, and he gives it gently.
The Hymn of Death (2018)
SBS, a short special series. Set in the 1920s, it is based on the real story of soprano Yun Sim-deok (Shin Hye-sun) and playwright Kim Woo-jin, whom he plays. Kim Woo-jin is a writer torn between his family duty, his love and his dream of art under Japanese colonial rule. It is short, elegant and deeply sad.
While You Were Sleeping (2017)
SBS, 32 short episodes. He plays Jung Jae-chan, a rookie prosecutor who begins seeing future events in his dreams, alongside a young woman (Suzy) who has the same gift. Together they try to change what is coming. It mixes courtroom drama, fantasy and a sweet, unhurried romance.
V.I.P. (2017, film)
He plays Kim Gwang-il, the son of a powerful North Korean official, who is suspected of a string of murders and protected by the people who need him. It is a dark, violent thriller, and a deliberate turn away from his romantic image.
W: Two Worlds (2016)
MBC, 16 episodes. He plays Kang Chul, the hero of a hit webtoon, a former Olympic shooting champion whose family was murdered and who was wrongly accused of the crime. When a young surgeon (Han Hyo-joo) is pulled into his comic-book world, his life begins to change in ways the story was never meant to allow. Read this full review of W: Two Worlds.
Why watch it: it is the role most international fans still connect with him, and it earned him his first Daesang.
Pinocchio (2014–2015)
SBS, 20 episodes. He plays Choi Dal-po, whose real name is Ki Ha-myung, a young man whose family was destroyed by careless news reports. He grows up to become a reporter himself, alongside a woman (Park Shin-hye) who hiccups whenever she tells a lie. It is a romance, but at heart it is about what words can do to people.
Doctor Stranger (2014)
SBS, 20 episodes. He plays Park Hoon, a brilliant surgeon who grew up in North Korea and escapes to the South, where he has to fight a hospital's politics while searching for the woman he loved. It asked him to carry long surgical scenes and a lot of loneliness.
Hot Young Bloods (2014, film)
He plays Kang Joong-gil, the charming school heartthrob of a rural high school in the 1980s. It is a nostalgic, comic look at first love and teenage rivalry.
I Can Hear Your Voice (2013)
SBS, 18 episodes. He plays Park Soo-ha, a high school student who can read people's minds after witnessing his father's murder as a child. Years later, he finds the woman (Lee Bo-young) who testified at the trial. This is the drama that made him a leading man.
The Face Reader (2013, film)
He plays Kim Jin-hyeong, the son of a gifted face reader (Song Kang-ho) in the Joseon dynasty, Korea's last royal era. It is a supporting role in a large historical film, but his scenes with Song Kang-ho carry much of its emotion.
No Breathing (2013, film)
He plays Jeong Woo-sang, a star swimmer whose old rival returns to the pool. A light sports film about friendship and competition.
School 2013 (2012–2013)
KBS2, 16 episodes. He plays Go Nam-soon, a quiet, troubled student whose past friendship with a classmate (Kim Woo-bin) ended badly. It is a realistic look at Korean high school life, and it is where many viewers first noticed him.
As One (2012, film)
A supporting role in the sports film about the unified Korean women's table tennis team at the 1991 World Championships.
R2B: Return to Base (2012, film)
He plays First Lieutenant Ji Seok-hyun, a young air force pilot, in an aerial action film.
High Kick: Revenge of the Short Legged (2011–2012)
MBC sitcom. He plays Ahn Jong-suk, a cool, quiet high school student. The long-running family sitcom made him familiar to Korean viewers of every age.
Secret Garden (2010–2011)
SBS, 20 episodes. He plays Han Tae-sun, a talented young musician in a pop star's band, in one of the biggest romance hits of its year.
Prosecutor Princess (2010)
SBS. His acting debut, in a small supporting role.
What He Is Working On Now
- The Remarried Empress premieres on Disney+ on November 4, 2026, with new episodes weekly until November 25 (reported August 2026).
- In May 2026, Korean media reported that he had been offered the lead in Nakwon (Paradise), a mystery drama about a reporter and a police officer, and that he was considering it. No final decision had been announced as of October 2026.
The Thread Running Through His Roles
Look at his best-known roles side by side and a pattern appears. His characters are very often young men who lost their families to an injustice, and who spend the rest of the story turning that grief into a search for the truth.
In I Can Hear Your Voice, Park Soo-ha watches his father die and grows up reading other people's thoughts, hoping to find justice. In Pinocchio, Choi Dal-po loses his family to a false news story and becomes a reporter so he can tell the truth that no one told about them. In W, Kang Chul's family is murdered and he is blamed for it, and his whole life becomes a fight to find out who really did it, and why. Even in While You Were Sleeping and Big Mouth, he plays men of the law who refuse to accept the first, easy answer.
What makes this more than a type is how he plays it. He rarely shows anger loudly. His grief comes out in small pauses, in a joke that lands a moment too late, in eyes that stay on someone just a little too long. His characters are not healed by revenge. They are healed slowly, by someone who stays beside them.
For many readers of this blog, that is a familiar story. Most of us have lost something we did not choose to lose. His dramas do not say the loss goes away. They say it can become a reason to keep looking for what is true, and that we do not have to look alone.
Questions People Actually Ask
Who does Lee Jong-suk play in The Remarried Empress?
He plays Heinrey, the crown prince of the Western Kingdom. The series is based on the webtoon of the same name and streams on Disney+, and on Hulu in the United States.
Which Lee Jong-suk drama should I watch first?
Most fans would say W or Pinocchio. If you prefer something gentle, choose Romance Is a Bonus Book.
Is Lee Jong-suk in a romantic comedy again?
His last full romance drama was Romance Is a Bonus Book in 2019. Law and the City has a light romance in it, but it is mainly a workplace drama.
Why was there a gap in his dramas between 2019 and 2022?
He completed his mandatory military service during that time, serving as a social service worker. Big Mouth in 2022 was his return.
Where can I watch his dramas?
It depends on your country. His recent works are on Disney+ in many regions, and many of his older dramas are on Rakuten Viki and other services. Please check what is available where you live.
How old is Lee Jong-suk, and when did he debut?
He was born on September 14, 1989. He debuted as a model in 2005 and as an actor in 2010.
Where He Is Heading
After more than fifteen years on screen, Lee Jong-suk is still choosing roles that stretch him, from a quiet associate lawyer to a foreign crown prince in a royal fantasy. He is no longer the new face from School 2013. He is an actor audiences trust to carry a story, and to carry its heaviest feelings without making a show of them.
Which Lee Jong-suk character stayed with you the longest, and why? Tell me in the comments. I would love to know which of his stories found you at the right time.
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Samie | contact@KdramaForHealing.com