Born in 1980, LEE Byoung-heon (not to be confused with the actor LEE Byung-hun), started his career in 2009 as a script editor on KANG Hyoung-chul’s hit comedy <Scandal Makers>. That same year, he made his directorial debut with the short <Smell>, winning Best Korean Picture at the Asiana International Short Film Festival. He then reunited with KANG to co-write <Sunny>, which would become one of the biggest successes of 2011 and later spawn remakes in Vie...More

Born in 1980, LEE Byoung-heon (not to be confused with the actor LEE Byung-hun), started his career in 2009 as a script editor on KANG Hyoung-chul’s hit comedy <Scandal Makers>. That same year, he made his directorial debut with the short <Smell>, winning Best Korean Picture at the Asiana International Short Film Festival. He then reunited with KANG to co-write <Sunny>, which would become one of the biggest successes of 2011 and later spawn remakes in Vietnam, Japan and Hollywood. LEE’s first feature film was <Cheer Up Mr. Lee>, about a novice film director struggling to write a screenplay while a TV crew follows his everyday life. The film, which he also produced himself, won the Audience Award at the Seoul Independent Film Festival. After participating in the script for <Tazza- The Hidden Card> and co-penning the rom-com <Love Forecast>, LEE found success with his young adult comedy <Twenty> (2014), attracting 3 million spectators. He came back in 2018 with the adult comedy <What a Man Wants> (2017) which fared surprisingly considering its rating. Despite his rather successful career till then, though, he surprised everyone in the industry, even himself, with the phenomenal hit of his next directorial effort. A high-concept comedy that sees a group of narcotics unit going undercover at a fried chicken joint that they inadvertently turn into the hot new place, <Extreme Job> defied the odds to become a word-of-mouth sensation that topped the charts for four consecutive weeks and reached a total of 16.3 million admissions, the second highest haul in the Korean market after period war epic <Roaring Currents> and its 17.6 million visitors.Less