Clara Lee

Clara Lee (Korean: 클라라 리; born Lee Sung-min (Korean: 이성민) on 14^[1] January 1985), better known by her mononym Clara, is an actress and model based in South Korea.^[2]

Clara
Lee in December 2024
Born	Lee Sung-min (1985-01-15) 15 January 1985 (age 40) Switzerland
Citizenship	United Kingdom
Alma mater	El Camino College
Occupations	Actress model
Years active	2005–present
Agent	CL ENM
Spouse	Samuel Hwang ​ (m. 2019)​
Parent	Lee Seung-kyu (father)
Korean name
Hangul	클라라
Revised Romanization	Keulrara
McCune–Reischauer	K'ŭllara
Birth name
Hangul	이성민
Hanja	李成敏
Revised Romanization	I Seong-min
McCune–Reischauer	I Sŏngmin

Career

Clara (born Lee Sung-Min，이성민, 李成敏) made her entertainment debut under her birth name in 2005 and starred in her first film in 2009, Five Senses of Eros. In January 2012, she adopted Clara as her stage name, which was announced at a press conference for the drama series, Take Care of Us, Captain. Reasons given for the name change included that her birth name, Sung-min, was "male-sounding" and that her English name had always been Clara.^[3]

Lee in October 2013

In May 2013, Clara became an overnight sensation online after throwing a ceremonial first pitch in a professional baseball game dressed in form-fitting leggings.^[4] She has since been hailed as an up-and-coming star and a sex symbol.^[5][6] In September 2013, Clara drew criticism from South Korean netizens for apparently contradicting herself on television by saying she liked to eat chicken and drink beer in one program and stating the contrary in another. Consequently, she closed down her Twitter and Facebook accounts.^[7][8] Afterwards, she again played supporting roles in the television series Goddess of Marriage (2013) and Emergency Couple (2014), followed by a leading role in the sex comedy film Casa Amor: Exclusive for Ladies (2015).^{[9][10][11][12]}

In December 2014, she filed a lawsuit against her agency Polaris Entertainment to nullify her contract on the grounds of being sexually harassed by its president Lee Kyu-tae; Polaris denied those allegations and countered that Clara had been blackmailing the agency to end her contract which is due to expire in 2018.^[13] In July 2015, prosecutors cleared Clara of the blackmail allegations and indicted Lee for making threats against her that implied physical violence.^{[14][15][16][17]}

On 18 September 2015 Clara dropped her suit against Polaris Entertainment, bringing their legal battle to an end.^[18]

Lee at the 2017 Tokyo International Film Festival

Personal life

Clara is the daughter of singer Lee Seung-kyu, a former member of the bilingual band, Koreana.^[19] She was born in Switzerland, educated in the United States, and now based in South Korea.^[2] Clara is a British citizen.^[2]

In January 2019, she announced her marriage to a Korean-American businessman.^[20][21]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role
2009	Five Senses of Eros	Lee Yoon-jung (segment "Believe in the Moment")
2013	Ask This of Rikyu	Joseon noblewoman
2015	Casa Amor: Exclusive for Ladies	Oh Nan-hee
2016	Line Walker	Assassin
	Some Like It Hot	Yoyo
2017	The Jade Pendant[22]	Peony
2018	Fat Buddies	Chinese immigrant's wife
	Love Illusion
	Killing Mobile	Webcam model
2019	Bodies at Rest	Ankie Cheng
	Shenzhen Love
	Jump Out of Primitive Tribe
	Space Intellectual
	Run Amuck	AK Queen
2021	Kill the Monster
	Big Red Envelope	Ellie
	Empathic Master
	Double Patty	Foreign journalist
	Detective Chinatown 3	Photo-taking girl
	Some Like It Hot 2
2023	The Wandering Earth 2	Space-elevator attacker

Television series

Year	Title	Network	Role
2006	Invisible Man, Choi Jang-soo	KBS2	Cha Hye-jin
2006-2007	High Kick!	MBC	Kim Yoon-joo (ep.64)
2009	Hilarious Housewives		Lee Sung-min
	Creating Destiny		Shin Jin-hee
2010	Happiness in the Wind	KBS1	Choi Mi-ran
2011	Baby Faced Beauty	KBS2	Chae Seul-ah
2012	Take Care of Us, Captain	SBS	Hong Mi-joo
	Tasty Life		Min Young-woo
2013	Goddess of Marriage		Cynthia Jung
	Reckless Family 3	MBC Every 1	Clara Park
	Love For Ten - Generation of Youth	Mobile drama[23]	Kim Yang
2014	Emergency Couple	tvN	Han Ah-reum
	You Are My Destiny	MBC	Hye-jin (ep.1)
	America's Next Top Model	The CW	Herself (season 21 ep.14)
2016	Entourage	tvN	Herself (ep.2)
2017	Strong Girl Bong-soon	JTBC	Lee Bong-soon/Dental Hygienist (ep.16)
	Meloholic	OCN	Yun Kyung-ae
2018	Happiness Chocolate	Mango TV
	The City of Chaos	iQIYI	Zheng Mengqi
2020	Detective Chinatown		beauty in S1E9

Variety show

Year	Title	Network	Notes
2013	Saturday Night Live Korea - Season 4	tvN	Cast (episode 20-38)
2014	Fashion King Korea - Season 2	SBS	Cast
2017	The Taming of the Shrew 2[24]	JTBC2

Music video

Year	Song Title	Artist
2007	"Same Pillow"[25]	Tei
	"Love Song"
2009	"Empty Bet"	Kim Joon
	"Toy"[26]	Moon Hee-joon
2010	"Nothing to Lose"[27]	Juno
	"Shout to the World"	December
	"Dazzling Tears"[28]
	"오고있나요"[29]
2013	"Joah"	Jay Park
	"Invitation"[30]	House Rulez
2014	"Gwiyomi Song 2"[31]	Clara
	"Fear"[32]	Clara ft. Yasu
2017	"Hitchhiking"[33]	Clara
	"I Am Clara" (Chinese ver of Hitchhiking)[34]

^{[35] [36]}

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Nominated work	Result
2004	1st Foce Digital Ulzzang Photo Contest	—	—	Won
2013	Men's Health Cool Guy Contest	Vital Woman Award[37]	—	Won
	6th Style Icon Awards	Chevrolet Find New Star Award	—	Won
	6th Korea Drama Awards	Hot Star Award	Goddess of Marriage	Won