Career
Born Lee Ji-hye, she used the stage name "Han Ji-hye" upon learning that her real name would cause confusion among fans since an older actress, Lena Lee, also has the same Korean name.
Han debuted as a model, then started acting in supporting roles in TV dramas such as Summer Scent. She landed her first leading role in Sweet 18. The next couple of years saw Han starring in low-rating dramas, but her 2007 daily drama Likeable or Not became very popular, topping the ratings chart during its run and recording the highest rating for a daily drama since 2000. Han then displayed newfound maturity and great improvement in her acting in the 2008 epic drama East of Eden.
In 2008, Han along with Leon Jay Williams sang the Korean and Chinese versions of Olympic theme song "Friends." She was brought to the project via a proposal from the Chinese Olympic committee to sing "Friends" as the official swimming theme of the Beijing National Aquatics Centre at the Beijing Olympics. Less than a year later, she again recorded a digital single, an upbeat electro-pop song titled "Luv Luv."
After studying the craft of shoemaking and design in Florence, Italy, Han collaborated with existing shoe brand Jinny Kim to design and produce her own line, called "H by Jinny Kim." This was documented on the cable program O'live TV Han Ji-hye: Shoes! My Dream!. The Fall/Winter 2009 collection were sold in major department stores in Seoul and the surrounding metro areas, as well as in a well-known department store in Singapore and various online shopping malls.
Han published My Fair Lady, a collection of autobiographical lifestyle essays. The volume focused on Han’s hobbies and daily life rather than on her onscreen work and contained Han’s writings about her experiences as a twentysomething single woman, as well as her reflections on her life. It also touched on the various projects she has undertaken such as designing shoes, studying tea ceremony, learning about ceramics, DIY furniture making, fabric art, and more.
Director Lee Joon-ik cast Han in his period action film Blades of Blood without auditioning her — not for her talents, but for her Asian-looking eyes. Aside from finding her single eyelid unique and difficult to find these days, Lee liked that she related to him in a natural manner. Han said that Lee scolded her a lot in the beginning of the shoot for not acting well, so she used the pain in her heart to portray her character such that she improved towards the middle of the filming and learned a lot from him. She also sang on the soundtrack, having played a gisaeng in the film.
In 2011 she starred in her first historical series The Duo. She played a woman who helps a young man achieve his dreams in the single-episode drama Pianist, and a visually impaired teacher in the 2-part Chuseok special The Great Gift.
Han played the protagonist in the 2012 drama May Queen, the success story of a woman in the shipbuilding industry during Korea’s modernization.
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