Grace Lee: Everybody say Grace!

“The first time I set foot here in the Philippines, it was amazing. I saw all these beautiful palm trees, felt the great sunshine, and told myself I would definitely stay here,” she fondly recalls of her first glimpse of the country. It’s the eve of the Chinese New Year. Grace Lee, nee Lee Kyung Hee, is dressed in t-shirt, jeans and ballet flats. She is enjoying a wine-and-cheese get-together with some friends in a condominium unit in San Juan.

Article by Cameron Aquino
Photography by DIX BUHAY
Styling by MARA REYES
Make-up by RIA GAMBOA
Hair styling by DIMPLE CALLADA
Shot on location at VICTORIA COURT PASIG
Special thanks to MS. TANYA LLANA, MS. JOY FABRE
AND THE STAFF OF VICTORIA COURT PASIG
Grace is wearing pinstripes satin slip by VELVET ROSE and polo dress by stylist

She offers me several choices to drink—a glass of wine, iced tea, mineral water—and she says it with perfect Filipino diction, a contrast with her unmistakably Korean features: porcelain-doll skin, straight jet-black hair, small eyes. A face that remained foreign but for that.

“Yeah, I practically grew up here, attended St. Paul Pasig High School, and learned to speak Tagalog (sic) after staying here for quite some time now.” From Seoul, South Korea, Grace and her family moved to the Philippines when she was only ten, her father having several trading engagements in Manila.

And now, she is truly a part of the city culture, much like fellow Korean expatriates Sandara Park and Sam Oh. Turn the dial to Magic 89.9 every 6AM in the morning, and it’s her lovely alto that you’ll be hearing alongside DJ’s Mo Twister’s and Mojo Jojo’s guffaws in the notorious radio talk show Good Times with Mo. The program’s been gaining a huge fan base, attracting a number of celebrity guests such as Rico Blanco, Vicki Belo and Hayden Kho, even political bigwigs the likes of Bayani Fernando and Pia Cayetano. It’s clearly not your typical morning talk show. Some of their segments have even landed them into trouble with the KBP. Grace tells, “ We have a segment called ‘Forbidden Questions’, where we ask our guests the most outrageous questions like ‘What is the craziest thing you’ve ever done in bed?’ and they have no choice but to answer them!”

We talk about personal trivia. I learn that her favorite movie is Love Actually; that she listens to everything from Josh Groban to the Eraserheads; that she was part of varsity swimming in school; and that she likes shopping in Zara. She has done a lot of traveling and has been to many parts of the world. She prefers headstrong men to geeky mama’s boys.

She is also busy hosting shows on TV. She landed her first hosting job in the magazine show The Sweet Life on QTV. In the program, she tackles the ins-and-outs of the modern woman’s lifestyle with Lucy Torres-Gomez and Wilma Doesnt. Another forthcoming project is a televised spin-off of their radio show, which MTV Philippines is producing. “At first, I was not comfortable seeing myself on the television screen, but now I got the hang of it,” she says, “I’ve learned to enjoy it.”

It’s easy to imagine Grace as a character in a teleserye embracing herself against the chilly air in her native South Korea. But this beautiful woman sitting in front of me seems at home where she is. She is beaming when she tells me, “I’m Korean in blood, but definitely Filipino in nature. Totoo ‘yan.” To think, everything felt foreign half an hour ago.