If you've ever seen Blade Runner one of the most indelible images from that amazing film is that of the building-sized electronic-billboard geisha seductively puffing away on a cigarette or popping happy pills (at least I assume they're happy pills). Ever wonder who that Japanese actress was? Well, in fact, she wasn't Japanese at all. She was/is Korean-American actress Alexis Rhee.

So what is everyone's favorite unknown cyber-noir icon doing these days?

After appearing in Blade Runner she waited almost six years for her next movie gig; a small part in the underwhelming 1988 film "Silent Assassins" which starred Linda Blair. A few other B-movies followed with tantalizing titles like "Gang Justice" and "The Visit" but nothing substantial. Then, 22 years after leaving her anonymous imprint on pop culture in Blade Runner, Ms Rhee found herself cast as Kim Lee in 2004's Academy Award winning film "Crash" and won herself a Screen Actor's Guild award for "Outstanding performance by a cast member". The recognition seems to have sparked interest in her from the powers-that-be in Hollywood as since then she's been working much more steadily and in higher visibility projects like the 2007 Eddie Murphy comedy "Norbit".

Not one to simply sit around and wait for the calls to come in from casting agents though, away from the movie set Ms Rhee is a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, a classically trained violinist, a registered hypnotherapist and a certified Microsoft Systems Engineer.

(left) Alexis Rhee as iconic geisha in Blade Runner 1982 and (right) as Kim Lee about to go medieval in Crash 2004.