# Ki Hong Lee

Ki Hong Lee (born September 30, 1986) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Minho in the Maze Runner film series and Dong Nguyen in the Netflix sitcom Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

## Early life and education

Lee was born in Seoul, South Korea, on September 30, 1986. When he was six years old, his parents moved the family to Auckland, New Zealand. When he was eight, his family moved to Los Angeles, California.
Lee studied psychology at the University of California, Berkeley from 2004 to 2008. In college, Lee was part of a college chapter of Liberty in North Korea (LiNK) and interned at their headquarters. He was also an elected Associated Students of the University of California Senator from 2005 to 2006, under the Student Action party. He ran for re-election for the 2006 to 2007 year under "The Mario Party" as 'Ki Hong "Donkey Kong " Lee' but failed to garner the necessary votes for the position.
Lee began acting in middle school, doing skits at church retreats. He initially wanted to become a teacher, but was inspired to pursue acting after watching Aaron Yoo in the film Disturbia (2007) while in college. After college, he worked at his parents' sundubu-jjigae restaurant, Tofu Village, in Little Tokyo while pursuing acting.

## Career

Lee made his stage debut in Wrinkles, presented by East West Players and directed by Jeff Liu. It opened on February 16, 2011 and closed on March 13, 2011 at the David Henry Hwang Theater at the Union Center for the Arts in Downtown Los Angeles.
Since 2012, Lee has collaborated with Wong Fu Productions (WFP) featuring in more than five short videos including the Away We Happened mini-series. On June 26, 2014, it was announced that Lee was cast in WFP's first feature film Everything Before Us, which focuses on "two couples at different stages of their relationships, set in a world where "all relationship activity is documented and monitored by the Department of Emotional Integrity (DEI)" and is assigned a number like a credit score." The film also featured The Tomorrow People's Aaron Yoo and Veep's Randall Park.
In 2013, Lee made his feature-length film debut in the YouTube two-part film adaptation of Yellowface, from playwright David Henry Hwang. It was published by the Asian American-centric YOMYOMF network . On April 18, 2013, director Wes Ball announced via Twitter that Lee had been cast in the film adaptation of the young-adult dystopian science fiction novel, The Maze Runner, as Minho, the keeper of the Runners in charge of navigating and mapping the Maze.
In fall 2017, Lee played the lead in Julia Cho's play, Office Hour, alongside actress Sue Jean Kim in the New York premiere of the production at the Public Theater.
In June 2020, Lee signed an exclusive contract with Saram Entertainment to expand his activities not just in South Korea, but in Asia as a whole.

## Personal life

Lee married his childhood friend Hayoung Choi on March 7, 2015. Their daughter was born in late 2016. Choi played Lee's character's new girlfriend in the 2013 short film She Has a Boyfriend, by Wong Fu Productions.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
| 2010 | The Social Network | Cambridge Student | Uncredited |
| 2013 | Yellow Face | BD Wong | |
| 2014 | The Maze Runner | Minho | |
| 2015 | The Stanford Prison Experiment | Gavin Chan | |
| 2015 | Everything Before Us | Jay | Wong Fu Productions |
| 2015 | Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials | Minho | |
| 2017 | Two Bellmen Three | Jun Lee | |
| 2017 | The Mayor | Steve | |
| 2017 | Wish Upon | Ryan Hui | |
| 2018 | Maze Runner: The Death Cure | Minho | |
| 2018 | The Public | Chip | |
| 2020 | Looks That Kill | Dan | |

### Short film

| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
| 2011 | All in All | Jeremy | |
| 2012 | Take It Slow | Brian | Wong Fu Productions |
| 2012 | Fratervention: The End of Bro'ing Out | Keith | |
| 2012 | Away We Happened | Ben | Wong Fu Productions Mini-Series 6 episodes |
| 2012 | Always You | James | YOMYOMF Network |
| 2012 | MotherLover | Chaz Seong | YOMYOMF Network Miniseries 6 episodes |
| 2013 | The Master Chef | John Suh | Jubilee Project |
| 2013 | This Is How We Never Met | Boy | Wong Fu Productions |
| 2013 | Somewhere Like This | Boyfriend | Wong Fu Productions |
| 2013 | To Those Nights | Elijah bar friends | Wong Fu Productions |
| 2013 | She Has a Boyfriend | Frank | Wong Fu Productions |
| 2014 | This Time | Manny Park | Jubilee Project |
| 2017 | Asian Bachelorette | Tom | Wong Fu Productions |
| 2018 | Asian Bachelorette 2 | Tom / Tobby | Wong Fu Productions |
| 2020 | Si | Si | Directed by Thomas Percy Kim |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2010 | Victorious | Clayton | 2 episodes: "Robarazzi" "The Diddly Bops" |
| 2010 | The Secret Life of the American Teenager | Student #2 | Episode: "Which Way Did She Go?" |
| 2010 | Modern Family | Busboy | Episode: "Mother Tucker" |
| 2011 | The Nine Lives of Chloe King | Paul | Main role 10 episodes |
| 2011 | New Girl | Hector | Episode: "Bells" |
| 2012 | The Client List | Delivery Guy | Episode: "Turn the Page" |
| 2013 | Blue Bloods | David Lin | Episode: "The Truth About Lying" |
| 2014 | NCIS | Chris Hoffman | Episode: "Bulletproof" |
| 2015–2016 | Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt | Dong Nguyen | Recurring role 8 episodes |
| 2015 | The Whispers | Peter Kim | Episode: "X Marks The Spot" |
| 2019 | Whiskey Cavalier | Jung | Episode: "College Confidential" |
| 2019 | Prometheus: War of Fire | Frank Lee | |
| 2020 | Spider-Man | Amadeus Cho / Totally Awesome Hulk | Voice role; 2 episodes |
| 2021 | Dave | Dan Kim | 2 episodes |
| 2021 | Robot Chicken | Cody Martin, Naruto | Voice, episode: "May Cause Lucid Murder Dreams" |
| 2022 | Grid | Man from the Future | Special appearance |
| 2022 | Little America | Older Luke Song | Episode: "Mr. Song" |
| 2023 | Party Down | Howard | Episode: "First Annual PI2A Symposium" |

### Stage

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2011 | Wrinkles | Jason | |
| 2017 | Office Hour | Dennis | |

### Video games

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2013 | Grand Theft Auto V | The Local Population | |