Meet Greta Lee, the Past Lives star up for a Golden Globe for best actress: she stuns in Loewe on th

From wearing a bright candy-cane Bottega Veneta number at the 2023 San Francisco International Film Festival to stunning in a series of show-stopping Loewe looks throughout the year, Lee hasn’t shied away from bold outfits on or off the red carpet.

But what else is there to know about Lee, who seems destined for even bigger and better starring roles in the years to come? Read on to discover more about the silver-screen star on the rise, who already has a host of impressive acting credits under her belt.

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Greta Lee is the daughter of Korean immigrants, like her character Nora in Past Lives

While Lee portrays a Korean-born immigrant turned New Yorker in Past Lives, she was actually born in Los Angeles in 1983 to a doctor father and concert pianist mother. Like her character Nora, however, she eventually moved to New York to pursue her acting dreams, making her Broadway debut in 2007 after studying at Northwestern University.

In an interview with The New York Times, Lee said she has Olympic wrestlers on her dad’s side. As the oldest of three kids, she was also the first in her family to become an American citizen.

American roots also run deep in her family history – Lee said in an interview with Vogue that her grandfather, who painted billboards of classic Hollywood films that were shown to soldiers at US army bases during the Korean war, introduced her to all the legendary actors of the time, including Greta Garbo, who she claims to be named after.

She’s worked with female comedian powerhouses Amy Schumer, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Lena Dunham

Audiences who first saw Lee in Past Lives might be surprised to learn the actress was initially known for more comedic roles. She starred alongside comedy veterans Tina Fey and Amy Poehler in the 2015 movie Sisters, which was directed by fellow Northwestern alum Jason Moore. In an interview with the Daily Northwestern, Moore said he cast Lee because she could “hold her own” with the comedy heavyweights, and added that they were “huge fans of hers”.

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You also may know Lee from Amy Schumer’s sketch comedy show Inside Amy Schumer, or as Soojin in Lena Dunham’s hit HBO show Girls, a role that was written specifically with her in mind. The role Lee originally read for on the series ended up being cut, but Dunham reportedly wanted to keep her on the show anyway.

She’s married to screenwriter Russ Armstrong, who played minor roles in 30 Rock and Master of None

It turns out that Lee isn’t the only one in her family with a connection to Fey. Fans of 30 Rock might recognise Lee’s husband Russ Armstrong, also a Northwestern alum, as Jed. While he went on to play a bigger role in Aziz Ansari’s Master of None, he’s still better known for his writing and producing chops, having earned credits for episodes of The Daily Show and Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj.

Off duty, Armstrong is a doting dad to the two kids he shares with Lee, Apollo Joosung and Raphael Joobaek.

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While Past Lives’ Nora is arguably her breakthrough role, she almost didn’t get the part

Despite Lee being instantly enamoured by the script, Song didn’t contact her about the role of Nora until a year later. One Zoom audition later, and the director offered Lee the job on the spot.

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