Korean actor Lee Sun-kyun nominated for best actor at Int'l Emmys

This image provided by Apple TV+ shows a scene from ″Dr. Brain.″ [YONHAP]

Korean actor Lee Sun-kyun has been nominated for best actor at this year's International Emmy Awards for his performance in the sci-fi thriller "Dr. Brain."

According to the nominations list for the 50th edition on Sunday, Lee was among the four candidates for Best Performance by an Actor along with Sverrir Gudnason in "A Royal Secret" from Sweden, Scoot McNairy in "Narcos: Mexico" from Mexico and Dougray Scott in "Irvine Welsh's Crime" from Britain.

Lee, who took the lead role in the Oscar-winning "Parasite" (2019), is the second Korean actor to be nominated in the category following Jang Hyuk who nabbed the first Emmy nod with the historical drama "The Slave Hunters" in 2011.

In "Dr. Brain," the first Korean-language original of Apple TV+, Lee played a genius cerebral scientist who is obsessed with figuring out new technologies to access the consciousness and memories of the brain in order to find out the truth of his wife's death.

In the best telenovela section, KBS' historical romance "The King's Affection" was also nominated with "Nos Tempos Do Imperador" from Brazil, "Two Lives" from Spain and "You Are My Hero" from China.

Starring Park Eun-bin and Rowoon, the 20-part series is about a fictional princess of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) who has been raised as her deceased twin brother and becomes a king.

It was on the top 10 of Netflix's official weekly viewership chart for non-English TV series for 10 weeks in a row.

The 50th International Emmy Awards will take place on Nov. 21 in New York.

Yonhap