Clara Lee (; born Lee Sung-min () on 14 January 1985), better known by her

mononym A mononym is a name composed of only one word. An individual who is known and addressed by a mononym is a mononymous person. In some cases, a mononym selected by an individual may have originally been from a polynym, a word which refers to one o ...

Clara, is a Swiss-born British actress and model based in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

Career

Clara (born Lee Sung-Min，李成敏) made her entertainment debut under her birth name in 2005 and starred in her first film in 2009, ''

Five Senses of Eros ''Five Senses of Eros'' () is a 2009 South Korean omnibus film with five short films depicting love and desire, but in different styles and genres. The shorts are: ''His Concern'', directed by Daniel H. Byun; ''I'm Right Here'' (), directed by Hu ...

''. In January 2012, she adopted Clara as her

stage name A stage name is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. Such professional aliases are adopted for a wide variety of reasons and they may be similar, or nearly identical, to an individu ...

, which was announced at a press conference for the

drama series In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-gen ...

, ''

Take Care of Us, Captain ''Take Care of Us, Captain'' () is a 2012 South Korean television series starring Ku Hye-sun as a passionate female co-pilot who gets paired with the youngest pilot of a Boeing 747 (played by Ji Jin-hee). It aired on SBS from January 4 to March ...

''. Reasons given for the name change included that her birth name, Sung-min, was "male-sounding" and that her English name had always been Clara. In May 2013, Clara became an overnight sensation online after throwing a

ceremonial first pitch The ceremonial first pitch is a longstanding ritual of baseball in which a guest of honor throws a ball to mark the end of pregame festivities and the start of the game. Originally, the guest threw a ball from their seat in the grandstand to ...

in a professional baseball game dressed in form-fitting leggings. She has since been hailed as an up-and-coming star and a

sex symbol A sex symbol or icon is a person or character widely considered sexually attractive.Pam Cook, "The trouble with sex: Diana Dors and the Blonde bombshell phenomenon", In: Bruce Babinigton (ed.), ''British Stars and Stardom: From Alma Taylor to ...

. In September 2013, Clara drew criticism from South Korean

netizen The term netizen is a portmanteau of the English words ''internet'' and '' citizen'', as in a "citizen of the net" or "net citizen". It describes a person actively involved in online communities or the Internet in general.

s for apparently contradicting herself on television by saying she liked to eat chicken and drink beer in one program and stating the contrary in another. Consequently, she closed down her

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

and

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accounts. Afterwards, she again played supporting roles in the television series ''

Goddess of Marriage ''Goddess of Marriage'' () is a 2013 South Korean romantic comedy-drama series starring Nam Sang-mi, Kim Ji-hoon, Lee Sang-woo, Lee Tae-ran, Kim Jung-tae, Jo Min-su, Kwon Hae-hyo, Jang Young-nam and Jang Hyun-sung. It premiered on SBS on June 2 ...

'' (2013) and ''

Emergency Couple ''Emergency Couple'' () is a 2014 South Korean television series starring Song Ji-hyo and Choi Jin-hyuk with Lee Pil-mo, Choi Yeo-jin and Clara. It aired on cable channel tvN from January 24 to April 5, 2014 on Fridays and Saturdays at 20:40 f ...

'' (2014), followed by a leading role in the sex comedy film '' Casa Amor: Exclusive for Ladies'' (2015). In December 2014, she filed a lawsuit against her agency

Polaris Entertainment Polaris (; Polaris Entertainment), previously known as Ilgwang Polaris, is a South Korean record label founded in 2006. It was formerly a subsidiary of Ilgwang Group, a large South Korean conglomerate whose main business is arms trade, and is no ...

to nullify her contract on the grounds of being

sexually harassed Sexual harassment is a type of harassment involving the use of explicit or implicit sexual overtones, including the unwelcome and inappropriate promises of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. Sexual harassment includes a range of actions fro ...

by its president Lee Kyu-tae; Polaris denied those allegations and countered that Clara had been

blackmail Blackmail is an act of coercion using the threat of revealing or publicizing either substantially true or false information about a person or people unless certain demands are met. It is often damaging information, and it may be revealed to fa ...

ing the agency to end her contract which is due to expire in 2018. In July 2015, prosecutors cleared Clara of the blackmail allegations and

indicted An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use the felonies concept often use that of an ...

Lee for making threats against her that implied physical violence. On 18 September 2015 Clara dropped her suit against Polaris Entertainment, bringing their legal battle to an end.

Personal life

Clara is the daughter of singer Lee Seung-kyu, a former member of the

bilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...

band, Koreana. In January 2019, she announced her marriage to a Korean-American businessman.

Controversy

The actress admitted “having lied several times in an attempt to cover up past lies.” She had appeared on Korea’s version of Saturday Night Live and was reprimanded by the host of the show, top comedian Shin Dong-yup. She apologized by saying “I’m sorry, I’m sorry” to the host of her past dishonesty.

Filmography

Film

Television series

Variety show

Music video

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Clara 1985 births British female models British film actresses British people of South Korean descent British television actresses El Camino College alumni Living people People from Bern South Korean female models South Korean film actresses South Korean television actresses British expatriates in South Korea