Sung Hi Lee was born on April 1st in Seoul, Korea.
(April Fools Day) She has very fond memories growing up in Seoul,
and was a MAJOR tomboy. She was "always climbing trees, catching
frogs in the summertime, and getting into fistfights with the
neighborhood boys. Not much has changed:)!!! "
In 1978 (February 19), during her elementary school
years, she and her brother moved to Chicago (USA) to be with their
father. Sung Hi was brought up in the Korean tradition of strict
discipline. She got good grades in school, but had a hard time
of adolescence, with few friends. Her father, an alcohohlic, wasn't
good at supporting his daughter financially and emotionally, providing
his daughter with seven successive stepmothers. These circumstances
prompted the young Sung Hi to leave home on occasion and contemplate
suicide. Graduating with honors from high school, Sung Hi abandoned
a college scholarship due to a lack of money.
"I used to hate it here in the states when
I first got here. I spoke absolutely no English, hated the food,
(give me spicy kimchi any day) and didn't know a soul except for
my parents and brother. But eventually, I grew to love McDonald's,
made friends and learned to pronounce my R's and my L's!!!"
"Chicago, Houston, Dallas, D.C, Columbus, NYC
and LA. I've lived in all those cities. We moved around a lot
because of my father's job. When I was in junior high and high
school, I hated moving around because it meant I had to adjust
to a new school and new friends. I was always the new kid in school.
But now that I'm all grown up, (hee hee), I'm glad I got to travel.
It made me open up, be comfortable with meeting new people, and
study hard. Although I would have liked to have gone to my senior
prom! (No one asked me...I used to be a pretty big nerd!) "
After her grandmother died, Sung Hi helped support
her father and brother by waitressing.
From the windy city Chicago they settled successively
in Houston, Dallas and Washington D.C, and Columbus. It was in
1988 at a Dallas nightclub where Sung Hi was discovered by her
future agent Jim Whitehead.
In 1991 Sung Hi enrolled at Ohio State University
and spent three years in an exercise psychology program. One day,
she threw away her dream of being a doctor and left the university
in favor of full-time modeling in New York. However, with measurements
of 5’4", 106 pounds, 33" B -cup bust (reshaped
at some time as she has revealed), 23" waist, and 33.5"
hips, she was a bit short for the New York modeling scene and
frequently took the red-eye flight to Los Angeles jobs. At that
time the first photographs of Sung Hi appeared in Playboy’s
Book of Lingerie.
In 1995 Sung Hi participated in the Hawaiian Tropic
Beauty Contest where she represented Pusan (Korea) because Seoul
was already taken by someone else. Although she was only 3rd runner
up, after winner Krista Frazier, her star was definitively born.
Even more, the contest led to her appearance on advertisements
for e.g. Hawaiian Tropics, Sunkist Orange Juice, Chrysler Plymouth,
and Hilton Hotel.
In the same year she made the move to Los Angeles.
Soon after Pacific USA shot her for their 1996 Pacific USA calendar
and featured her on the cover. About one year later, East Meets
West calendars offered to produce her own personal calendar in
exchange for her agreeing not to appear in any other calendars.
Since then she has appeared in advertisements, magazines, video’s
and movies as we all know.
Playboy calls her an intellectual woman that's difficult
to understand. Choong Ang Il Bo (Korean Newspaper) calls her very
incomparable and changeable. She creates a tear over a smile like
a pouring rain after bright sunshine. She will blast with a laugh
in the middle of sadness. She doesn't know what to do in the future
but she dreams to be an actress. And that dream seems to become
reality. . .
