Born in 1993, LEE Ji-eun, better known under her stage name IU, is a singer-songwriter and actor who debuted at the age of 15 when she released in 2008 her first album. She went on to dominate the charts five consecutive weeks in 2010 with her single “Good Day”, earning the nickname of “the nation’s little sister” in the process. In the following years, she proved to be also a capable lyricist and producer, having composed most of her songs since 2015, and has been...More

Born in 1993, LEE Ji-eun, better known under her stage name IU, is a singer-songwriter and actor who debuted at the age of 15 when she released in 2008 her first album. She went on to dominate the charts five consecutive weeks in 2010 with her single “Good Day”, earning the nickname of “the nation’s little sister” in the process. In the following years, she proved to be also a capable lyricist and producer, having composed most of her songs since 2015, and has been widely recognized for her more diversified musical sensibilities than most K-pop acts.
She debuted her acting career in 2010, just around the release of her smash hit song “Good Day”, when she was cast in the TV series <Dream High> (2011) which notably featured several K-pop stars as rookie artists trying to break through. After a busy 2012 that saw her debut in Japan and cement her position as one of the leading K-pop singers, she landed her first starring role the following year in the family drama TV series <You’re the Best, Lee Soon-shin>, in which she played opposite JO Jung-suk. Despite initial doubts regarding her acting abilities owing to her lack of experience, IU’s performance earned positive reviews. Later that year, subsequently to the release of her third studio album, she starred in the romcom TV series <Bel Ami>. In 2014’s drama series <The Producers>, IU played off her idol image by playing a cynical diva obsessed with her reputation. In 2016, she starred as the female lead of period drama series <Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo>, which was based on a Chinese novel and thus proved particularly successful across the Yellow Sea. After achieving in 2017 the title of most popular K-pop star of the year (according to Gallup Korea), she starred in another hit romcom series, <My Mister>.
Her film debut eventually came in 2017 in the form of a cameo in the thriller <Real>. In 2018, she served as the common denominator between four short films (directed by critically acclaimed directors LEE Kyoung-mi, YIM Pil-sung, Jeon Go-woon and KIM Jong-kwan) produced by Netflix and reunited as an anthology named <Persona>. Her collaboration with KIM eventually led her to be cast in his next feature project, <Shades of the Heart> (2019), which was selected as one of the Jeonju Cinema Projects of the Jeonju International Film Festival. IU admitted that she had always dreamed of being an actor, even before she first thought of becoming a singer.Less