Lee Sang-yi

He is Korean television's great second lead, and he has made a genuine craft out of it. Lee began on stage, debuting in theatre in 2014 and working through plays and musicals, which is where the singing comes from. He also sings in the vocal group MSG Wannabe.

Television took a while to work out what to do with him. Years of small parts sit on the record, Manhole and Suits and Special Labor Inspector, Mr. Jo and The Third Charm, around a larger supporting role in When the Camellia Blooms. Then came the run that defines him: Ji Sung-hyun in Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha, Ju Seok-hoon in My Demon, Ji U-gi in Yumi's Cells. These are all versions of the same thankless job, the decent man who is not going to get the girl, and Lee plays them with a quality that makes the trope bearable: his characters know. The disappointment reaches his face before the plot delivers it.

The leads have arrived since, in Bloodhounds, Spice Up Our Love and Good Boy, and a film career is forming alongside the television one in Love in the Big City and Single in Seoul. He is better in an ensemble than at the front of one, which is not a criticism so much as a description of where his particular warmth actually works.