Lee Sung Jin | |
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Born | 1981 (age 42–43) South Korea |
Other names | Sonny Lee |
Occupations |
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Years active | 2007–present |
Lee Sung Jin ( Korean: 이성진; born 1981), also known as Sonny Lee, [1] is a Korean-American writer and director. He is known for creating the Netflix series Beef, for which he received the 2023 Primetime Emmy Awards for directing and writing for a limited series. [2]
Lee Sung Jin was born in South Korea in 1981. [3] His family moved frequently in his youth; he moved to the United States when he was nine months old, and returned to Korea for third through fifth grade. [4] He then relocated from Seoul to Minnesota, United States, in sixth grade. [5] He also lived in Illinois, Louisiana, Iowa, and Texas. [6] He recalls it being “a horrible time to have a name no one can pronounce" and chose to go by "Sonny" instead. [7]
He attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he sang in an a cappella group. [8] He graduated in 2003 with a degree in economics. [9] [4]
After he graduated from college, he worked a variety of part time jobs while writing scripts. [4] He interned at the Sony record label Barsuk Records. [8] He wrote for the series Undone, Tuca & Bertie, Dave, and Silicon Valley. [7] In 2008, he worked as a screenwriter for It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. [4]
He was inspired to create Beef by a road rage confrontation he experienced with a middle-aged white man in Los Angeles. [10] "I thought there was something interesting there, how we’re all locked in our subjective world views, and we go around projecting a lot on the other person and not really seeing things for what they are," he said of the incident. [11] He also served as director, executive producer and showrunner on the series, forced to remotely direct scenes from the season finale "with my face on an iPad" because of a COVID-19 infection. [1] [12]
In August 2023, he visited South Korea to speak at a conference on the creation of films. During this, he said that he had not been back to South Korea since his childhood, for around 25 years. [3]
In November 2023, Variety reported that Lee had signed a multiyear deal to produce content for Netflix. [1]
Lee is the screenwriter for the 2025 Marvel Cinematic Universe film Thunderbolts*, which is his first credit for screenwriting on a produced film. [13]
Lee lives in Los Angeles with his wife and three dogs. [6] [14] He plays the violin, guitar and piano. [9]
In conclusion, he quipped: 'everything I do is for my three dogs, so the Federal Drug Administration, if you could please fast track that canine anti-aging pill, that would be so lovely.'