Harisu - Korean Transgender Woman Pop Singer, Model, and Actress

Lee Kyung-eun (born February 17, 1975), better known by her stage name Harisu (Hangul: 하리수; Hanja: 河莉秀), is a Korean pop singer, model, and actress. Assigned male at birth, Harisu identified as female from early childhood, and underwent sex reassignment surgery in the 1990s. She is the Republic of Korea's first transgender entertainer, and in 2002 became the second person in Korea to legally change their gender. Her stage name is an adaptation of the English phrase "hot issue".

Harisu first gained public attention in 2001, after appearing in a television commercial for DoDo cosmetics. The commercial was a success and marked the launch of her career, which allowed her to branch out into other fields such as music and acting. She has recorded five Korean musical albums, switching genres between techno and R&B, and her overseas releases have featured songs recorded in Mandarin. Her first major acting role was in the 2001 film Yellow Hair 2, and since then her credits have included Hi! Honey, a Taiwanese drama series, and Colour Blossoms, an erotic drama by Hong Kong filmmaker Yonfan. On May 19, 2007, Harisu married Micky Jung, however the couple divorced in 2017.

Harisu was born in Seongnam, Korea, and is one of five children. Although assigned male at birth, she identified as female from an early age, recalling, "I was always a girl who loved playing with dolls." This did not go unnoticed by her family or school friends, who often remarked that she looked and acted like a girl. A failed relationship with a boy during her teenage years convinced Harisu of the need to change her sex, and by the time she graduated from the all-boys Naksaeng High School, she was already undergoing hormone replacement therapy. It was for this reason that she was exempted from the military service usually required of males in the Republic of Korea, being rejected on the grounds of "mental illness". By the end of the 1990s, Harisu had undergone several surgeries in Korea and Japan including: breast augmentation, sex reassignment surgery, rhinoplasty, and surgery to increase the size of her hips.

Harisu lived in Japan for several years, where she studied to be a hair stylist. It was while working as a nightclub singer that she was discovered by a talent agency, and soon after she began her career as a model. After returning to Korea in 2000, she signed with management company TTM Entertainment, and first began using the stage name "Harisu", derived from the English phrase "hot issue"