Lee Junyoung (이준영)

Lee Jun-young first drew wide attention as a member of the veteran boy group U-KISS before establishing a parallel career as an actor — a transition that gained significant momentum with his role as IU's boyfriend in the Netflix series *You Have Done Well*. In 2026, his lead performance in the JTBC weekend drama *Rookie Chairman Kang* marked a clear turning point, driving the show from a 3.7 percent debut rating to 8.2 percent within four episodes.

From Idol to Leading Man

Having trained and performed under the U-KISS banner, Lee Jun-young follows a path carved by a generation of idol-turned-actors. In a candid appearance on the YouTube programme *Guerrilla Ha Ji-young*, he cited Im Si-wan, Do Kyung-soo, and Park Ji-hoon as touchstones for that transition, and said he hoped more performers from the idol world would find similar success on screen. The comment reads less as aspiration than as self-description: by 2026, Lee was headlining a prime-time network drama opposite a senior cast member in Son Hyun-joo.

Rookie Chairman Kang

The JTBC drama *Rookie Chairman Kang*, which premiered in May 2026, gave Lee Jun-young his most demanding screen role to date. He plays Hwang Jun-hyun, a promising young soccer player whose body is occupied by the soul of a 72-year-old chaebol chairman following a collision — a dual-register performance that requires him to project seasoned authority through a young man's physicality. The premiere episode, built around that soul-swap conceit, opened at 3.8 percent nationwide; by the third episode the show had reached 6.7 percent, logging the highest viewership of any JTBC weekend drama in 2026 to that point. Episode four pushed the figure to 8.2 percent. Reviews singled out Lee's ability to carry both registers of the character, with co-star Lee Sung-wook — playing his helper Park Bong-gi — drawing additional praise for the chemistry the two actors built on screen. A storyline involving Lee's character and a half-sister figure played by Lee Joo-myung extended the drama's narrative into an overseas arc centred on a corporate succession battle.

Members

Beyond his solo acting work, Lee Jun-young holds current membership in two groups: IZ (아이즈) and ChRocktikal.

Standing

Lee Jun-young's profile in 2026 reflects the particular position of a performer who has maintained group affiliations while building an independent acting identity. His appearance on the variety programme *Please Take Care of My Refrigerator* — where he disclosed eating ramen daily for two weeks — and his travel segment alongside Kim Ha-neul on *Narrow Mountain Path* show the breadth of variety and entertainment contexts he now moves through, beyond the drama set. The sharp ratings trajectory of *Rookie Chairman Kang* suggests his standing as a lead actor is no longer provisional.