Movie star to be judge for English speech contest

By John Redmond

Sean Richard Dulake

Celebrated Korean movie star Sean Richard Dulake will be a judge at the upcoming Teach North Korean Refugees (TNKR) 6th English speech contest in Seoul, Saturday.

Seven North Korean refugees will be invited to give speeches in English in the contest which is sponsored by The Korea Times.

As 70 percent of the North Koreans who have escaped to South Korea are women, the theme of the contest is “A Woman Is a Flower” examining the lives of North Korean women.

Each speaker will have up to 10 minutes to address the question as they wish.

Born to a British father and Korean mother, Dulake was raised in Los Angeles, California. After studying theater arts and business at Boston University, he moved to Korea in 2008.

Two years later, he landed his first leading role in a Korean television series.

Dulake has played a diverse array of characters in multiple film and television projects ranging from the role of the first doctor to establish a Western hospital in the 1880s in Korea in the period drama “Jejungwon” (2010), to a double agent in the blockbuster action series “Athena: Goddess of War” (2011).

The actor also directed and hosted a documentary for the Discovery Channel that explores hallyu, or the Korean wave, titled “Korea Next: Finding Hallyuwood” (2012).

He was nominated for best director at the 2013 Asian Television Awards.

Most recently, Dulake starred in and produced “Dramaworld” (2016), an original Netflix series about an American girl who gets sucked into her favorite Korean drama through her smartphone.

The speech contest will be held at the Shin and Kim Law Office from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The office is on the 8th floor of the State Tower Namsan, 100 Toegye-ro, Jung-gu, Seoul.

For more information visit the TNKR Facebook page.