'Kim's Convenience' star Paul Sun-Hyung Lee lands 'dream' role in 'The Mandalorian'

Screen Award winner for Best Actor, Comedy, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, Kim's Convenience, poses backstage at the Canadian Screen Awards in Toronto on March 11, 2018. (Peter Power / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

TORONTO — Disney has recruited another star of the Canadian comedy series "Kim's Convenience" -- this time Paul Sun-Hyung Lee.

The Calgary-raised actor surprised fans with an appearance in a new episode of the Disney Plus space Western series "The Mandalorian" this week.

He plays a Rebel pilot in Chapter 10 of the recently launched season 2 of the show, which is an extension of the "Star Wars" universe.

Last year, Disney's Marvel Studios cast "Kim's Convenience" star Simu Liu as the lead in the upcoming superhero film "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings."

Lee plays patriarch Appa on "Kim's Convenience," which airs on CBC and follows members of a Korean-Canadian family who run a corner store in Toronto.

The self-professed huge "Star Wars" fan wrote on Twitter that he kept his "dream" role in "The Mandalorian" under wraps until it launched.

"Dream come true!" Lee tweeted Friday, the day the episode launched.

"I cried during the costume fitting. For real," he wrote in another tweet, responding to one of many fans who were flooding his timeline with congratulations about the role.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2020