Paul Sun-Hyung Lee (born August 16, 1972) is a South Korean-Canadian actor and television host. He is best known for his roles as Randy Ko in the soap opera Train 48 (2003–2005) and as family patriarch Appa in the play Kim's Convenience (2011) and its television adaptation (2016–2021). Lee has won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Actor in a Comedy Series four times for his role as Mr. Kim in Kim's Convenience, and has been nominated twice for the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male in a Principal Role, Large Theatre, for The Monster Under the Bed in 2010 and the stage version of Kim's Convenience in 2012.

Early life

When Lee was three months old, his parents emigrated from Daejeon, Chungnam to Canada, living in London, Toronto and Calgary. In 1990, he moved back to Toronto to attend the University of Toronto, where he attended the drama program at University College.

Career

He had a supporting role in the film Ice Princess (2005) playing Tiffany's father. Lee appeared in the horror film P2 and the thriller The Echo. In 2006, he took the role of Jung Park in the video game Rainbow Six: Vegas and its 2008 sequel Rainbow Six: Vegas 2. Lee was part of the main cast of the Global nightly improvised soap opera Train 48 in the role of Randy Ko for the entire run of the series from 2003 to 2005. In 2012, Lee won the Best Actor citation from the Toronto Theatre Critics' Awards for his portrayal of Kim Sang-il in Kim's Convenience. He played the role of Appa on stage in several Toronto productions of Kim's Convenience and on a national tour with the Soulpepper theatre company, as well as at an Off Broadway staging of the play. He brought the role of Appa to television in 2016 when the show was adapted as a television series. In 2016, Lee played Zhang Lin in the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre/Canadian Stage production of Chimerica. On January 11, 2017, he guest starred on an episode of This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Lee has been nominated twice for the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male in a Principal Role, Large Theatre, for The Monster Under the Bed in 2010 and Kim's Convenience in 2012. In the 5th, 6th, and 9th Canadian Screen Awards, he won the Best Actor in a Comedy Series for his portrayal of Appa in the Kim's Convenience television series. Lee was selected to host the fourth season of the reality competition show Canada's Smartest Person, entitled Canada's Smartest Person Junior and featuring children as contestants. Lee is also a playwright, with his own play Dangling premiering at Toronto's fu-GEN theatre festival in 2010. In 2020, he appeared as New Republic X-wing pilot Captain Carson Teva in The Mandalorian. He reprised the role in The Book of Boba Fett Chapter 5: Return of the Mandalorian. In 2021, he appeared as a panelist on Canada Reads, championing Natalie Zina Walschots's novel Hench. In the same year, Lee's five seasons on Kim's Convenience came to an abrupt end when the two show runners left the project. He was cast Uncle Iroh in the Netflix live action version of Avatar: The Last Airbender. In 2022, he was announced as the host of Fandemonium, a factual series which will profile the internal cultures of various pop culture fandoms. He also appeared on the 2022 revival of The Kids in the Hall. In 2023, he returned as Carson Teva in The Mandalorian Season 3 episodes The Pirate and The Return. He also appears in Ahsoka as Captain Carson Teva. In 2024, he played Uncle Iroh in the Netflix live action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender. On March 6, 2024, Netflix announced that the series was renewed for 2 additional seasons following the series debuting to 21.2 million views in its first four days. He also played Inspector Albert Choi in the eighteen season of the CBC mystery series Murdoch Mysteries.

Honours

In 2023, Lee received the National Arts Centre Award at the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards.

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games