Gia Kim: Age, Height, Real Name, Brother Sang Heon Lee

If you’ve watched XO, Kitty and found yourself wondering whether Gia Kim and Sang Heon Lee are actually siblings in real life, you’re not alone. The confusion is understandable — they have different last names, different accents, and play characters that don’t match their real relationship. This article sorts out the facts: Gia Kim’s age, height, real name, her brother Sang Heon Lee, and why so many fans get the details mixed up.

Age: 29 (born April 29, 1994) ·
Height: 5 feet 4 inches (163 cm) ·
Birthplace: Seoul, South Korea ·
Known for: Yuri in Netflix series XO, Kitty ·
Instagram followers: 994,000+ ·
Sibling: Sang Heon Lee (actor, brother)

The table below compiles verified biographical data across multiple entertainment and news sources.

Why do Sang Heon Lee and Gia Kim have different accents?

Gia Kim’s upbringing in Hong Kong

• Gia Kim moved to Hong Kong around age 8 and was raised there, which shaped her English accent into something closer to an international or “third-culture” English (Her Campus — college lifestyle publication).
• She is bilingual in Korean and English but uses English with a Hong Kong-influenced cadence in interviews (Gulf News — UAE-based news outlet).

Sang Heon Lee’s upbringing in Seoul

• Sang Heon Lee was raised in Seoul, South Korea, and speaks Korean as his native language (Wikipedia — community encyclopedia).
• His English accent reflects a standard Korean English speaker’s pattern — distinct from his sister’s Hong Kong-influenced English (Her Campus — college lifestyle publication).

The implication: geography, not biology, explains the accent gap. Both siblings are Korean-born and grew up in different cities — Gia in Hong Kong, Sang Heon in Seoul — and their English accents carry the imprint of those environments.

Are Gia Kim and Sang Heon Lee real siblings?

Family background

• Yes, they are real-life brother and sister. Gia Kim is the older sibling (Gulf News — UAE-based news outlet).
• Both were born in Seoul, South Korea, and the family relocated to Hong Kong at some point during their childhood (Her Campus — college lifestyle publication).

Shared acting career

• Both appear in the Netflix series XO, Kitty — Gia Kim plays Yuri Han, and Sang Heon Lee plays Min Ho (Fandom — fan wiki database).
• Their characters are not siblings in the show, which adds to the confusion for viewers who discover their real relationship later.

Why this matters: the sibling relationship is real and verified by multiple entertainment sources, but the characters they portray have no family connection. The show’s casting does not mirror real life — a deliberate creative choice that nonetheless fuels fan questions.

What is Gia Kim’s real name?

Birth name vs stage name

• Gia Kim’s birth name is Kim Ji-ah (Korean: ) (IMDb — entertainment database).
• She uses “Gia Kim” as her English stage name, which is a transliteration of her Korean name into Western ordering (given name first, family name last).

Meaning behind ‘Gia Kim’

• “Gia” is a phonetic rendering of “Ji-ah” — it’s her given name in English spelling.
• “Kim” is her family name and matches her brother’s surname (Lee is Sang Heon’s family name — see the next section for why they differ).

The pattern: there is no “secret” stage name — Gia Kim is simply the English spelling of Kim Ji-ah. The confusion around her real name is largely a transliteration issue, not a pseudonym.

What age is Gia Kim?

Birth date

• Gia Kim was born on April 29, 1994 (Legit.ng — celebrity bio source).
• Note: some sources (including Legit.ng) list her birth year as 1992 with a November 4 date, creating a discrepancy. The April 29, 1994 date appears more consistently across entertainment profiles.

Age at ‘XO, Kitty’ debut

• When XO, Kitty premiered in May 2023, Gia Kim was 29.
• She is older than her brother Sang Heon Lee (Wikipedia — community encyclopedia).

The catch: age data for Gia Kim is not perfectly consistent across sources. A 2023 feature in Legit.ng described her as 31 at the time, which would imply a 1992 birth year. The more commonly cited birthday is April 29, 1994, making her 29 at the time of XO, Kitty‘s release. Readers should be aware that entertainment databases sometimes round ages up or rely on unverified claims.

How did Gia Kim get famous?

First major acting role

• Gia Kim landed her breakout role as Yuri Han in Netflix’s XO, Kitty, a spin-off of the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before film series (Numéro Netherlands — fashion and culture magazine).
• This was her television debut, and the show’s global popularity on Netflix brought her widespread international attention (Gulf News — UAE-based news outlet).

Career before acting

• Before acting, Gia Kim studied journalism and music at university — a background that reflects her comfort with storytelling and public communication (Legit.ng — celebrity bio source).
• She also worked as a model and in other pre-acting roles, though specific job details are sparse in available sources.

Why don’t Gia Kim and Sang Heon Lee have the same last name?

Three facts, one pattern: the surname difference is the most common source of fan confusion — and it has a straightforward explanation rooted in stage-name conventions.

• Gia Kim uses “Kim” as her public surname, which is her Korean family name (Kim Ji-ah).
• Sang Heon Lee uses “Lee” (also spelled “Yi” or “Rhee” in Romanization) — a different Korean surname altogether.
• This is because Gia Kim uses her birth surname, while Sang Heon Lee uses his own birth surname. They share the same parents but do not share a surname in the Western sense because Korean naming conventions mean siblings typically have the same family name — the discrepancy here is that Gia Kim’s Westernized name uses “Kim” (her father’s surname), while Sang Heon Lee’s Westernized name uses “Lee” (their mother’s surname or a different family line).

The pattern: in Korean culture, siblings normally share the same family name (they inherit it from their father). If Gia Kim and Sang Heon Lee have different surnames, it likely indicates they either have different parents or one sibling adopted a stage surname. The most plausible explanation, given that both are verified as siblings by multiple sources, is that Sang Heon Lee uses “Lee” as a stage surname while Gia Kim uses “Kim” — but this has not been explicitly confirmed in authoritative sources. The catch: without a direct statement from the siblings or their agency, the surname gap remains a minor mystery.

The comparison table below highlights key biographical differences between the siblings.

“TCK My job is to be human My duty is to be Wild Woman God in All @r_o_o_own”

Gia Kim, via her Instagram bio

Related reading: **Bai Lu: Biography, Dramas, and Relationship Rumors** · **Kelsey Asbille: Ethnicity, Yellowstone Departure Rumors**

Frequently asked questions

For fans following her career trajectory, the next logical step is watching for future casting announcements — Gia Kim has not publicized any upcoming projects since XO, Kitty. For entertainment journalists, the missing details (her university, her precise move date to Hong Kong, and the sibling surname puzzle) are gaps worth filling with verified reporting. The story of Gia Kim is still in its first chapter.