An Ultra Fan Guide to Lee Kyu Hyung

Drama Timeline

A selection of his finest performances in order of release date

Please be aware of potential spoilers!

2017: Stranger

I am someone who can always guess the plot, or if there is a potential plot twist coming into a drama. Don't get me wrong, normally I am close if I am not correct, but Stranger was the first drama where once the plot twist was revealed, I let out an audible "No f****** way?!?!".

Well, if you couldn't tell already, this is leading me to give absolute credit to Lee Kyu Hyung here. The first actor to legitimately fool me, and the first to let me experience a plot twist for how it was to be intended.

2017: Prison Playbook

There has not been a more universally loved character in dramaland since Lee Kyu Hyung's "Loony" character, Yoo Han Yang, a gay drug-addict who everyone roots for in terms of rehabilitation from the addiction, and his love life. This was a very difficult character to portray in terms of handling emotions on camera, but Lee Kyu Hyung magnificently handled it, which I am sure not many others in the world of acting could have done. This role also showed the all-round versatility of his craft as an actor.

2018: Life

Portraying a person who suffers from a physical disability can be challenging to do (if they are not actually physically disabled), as some actors are not believable in their role. However, Lee Kyu Hyung knocked it out of the park again. This was the first drama I had watched that he was in, and I genuinely thought he was always in a wheelchair (until I remembered there were those scenes that showed him standing up). 

In this drama, Lee Kyu Hyung not only successfully acts as a person who you feel sympathy for and want to root for, but his presence on screen was absolutely striking and stunning. 

This is another example of Lee Kyu Hyung succeeding at playing a type of character that can be more difficult to portray than others. 

2019: Doctor John

Medical malpractice is controversial, to say the absolute least about it. In this drama, Lee Kyu Hyung constantly confronts the ML of this drama (Ji Sung) over a deep grudge held against him about an incident of euthanasia (the person in question: the murderer of his son).

Not only do we see more of a seriously just character here, but also one that allows him to portray a "soft on the inside, hard on the outside" type of character. 

Out of all the dramas Lee Kyu Hyung has been in, I believe this is his most underappreciated role. If you haven't already, check this drama out!

2020: Hi Bye, Mama!

Now, this... this is a depressing one. Having a deceased loved one come back unexpectedly when you have started afresh, thinking you have finally managed to move on from the pain, to realise 'hiding' from the pain held the same amount of truth to it than already being healed.

In this drama, Lee Kyu Hyung plays the role of a father who had lost his wife in a car accident, and their baby who managed to be saved in the same said accident. A few years pass, and he gets remarried. All of a sudden, his previous wife returns, although, for how long?

From his crying-to-death, stone-like shock, nervous sarcastic and more other amazing faces he pulls in this drama, this was just another reason to love our man. Even if you don't become fully invested in this drama like others, everyone will be invested with his acting here.

Future Dramas

Lee Kyu Hyung will have his fourth main role in the upcoming drama Let's Start the Defense (release date TBA), also starring actors such as Jung Ryeo Won and Jung Jin Young. 

He will also appear in the crime-action drama titled Casino with a smaller role. This drama will air sometime in the near future on Disney+. 

There is also a potential chance we will see him in Doctor John 2, although the cast has not been confirmed. Fingers crossed for that one!