Helie Lee Biography

Born in Seoul, Korea, Helie Lee was four years old when her family immigrated to America. She attended UCLA and graduated with a degree in Political Science. She travelled back to Korea to rediscover her roots after graduating from college. Helie Lee is an author who’s written two best selling Books: In The Absence of Sun (Harmony Books 2002), memoirs in which she narrates her family’s experience including her risky attempt to rescue her uncle in war-torn Korea from the 1930s to 1997 and Still Life With Rice (Scribner 1996). Cosmopolitan Magazine was inspired by her courageous story and out of the numerous women nominated for their 1999 Fun Fearless Female Competition, Lee was selected as a “Freedom Fighter.” Lee started writing her first book after she returned to the U.S. and at the same time, she worked on TV shows such as The Martine Lawrence Show, In Living Color and Saved By The Bell. Lee has been featured as a bestselling author on Oprah, CNN, NBC Nightly News, NPR, The Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Today Show, Nightline, the Associated Press, People Magazine and Life & Times. As a guest lecturer, Lee has spoken at Harvard, the Korean American Coalition, Stanford, Princeton, Northeastern University, The Museum of Tolerance, Yale, Amherst, KASCON, and other venues. And publications like KoreAm Journal, Essence and Mademoiselle have also published Lee’s work. Nationally, Lee speaks to her audiences about human rights issues for North Korea refugees and her bicultural heritage. Senator Ted Kennedy invited Lee to testify at the Senate Subcommittee Hearing on Immigration in June of 2002. Lee is a member of PEN, a community of writers defending freedom of expression and building a literary culture; the Co-Founder of The Korea Academy For Educators (KAFE); a board member of the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea; and an honorary board member of the San Diego Asian American Film Festival. Macho Like Me which is her current project talks about her six-and-a-half month journey of living life as a man. It is a one-woman performance piece which weaves Lee’s monologue with engaging documentary footage and looks into the dynamics of how society treats women and men differently. Compiled and created into a full-length documentary, Macho Like Me is now being submitted into numerous film festivals.

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