When actor and film producer Kyu Lee and talent manager Scooter Braun first brought the King of K-pop Psy to the US last year, they wrote a new chapter in the Hallyu movement.

"I'm the one that found Psy," Kyu told publication Asia Society on Monday.

"I brought him to the US, and Scooter and I, we jointly got him signed and released 'Gangnam Style' in the US So it was a joint effort."

Hallyu, a term for the rise of popularity for Korean entertainment first coined by journalists in the late 1990s, was originally driven by TV dramas, yet as the next decade saw the rise of YouTube, K-pop artists began gaining international exposure.

Also referred to as the Korean Wave, Hallyu was still considered a largely East Asian phenomenon. Then came "Gangnam Style."

Kyu said Psy's breakout video first caught Braun's eye, but it was he who convinced Justin Bieber's manager that K-pop's biggest international star was more than just a one-hit wonder.

"Scooter called me and asked me if I saw 'Gangnam Style,' and I said 'no, but let me check it out,'" he recalled.

"[Scooter Braun] said he wanted to buy the rights to the song, but I said 'that's boring. I'll bring Psy [to the US], why don't you meet him and let's do something together, rather than just buy the rights to the song?' From that, all hell broke loose."

Kyu, who in addition to a 10-year stint with Sony Pictures is also the founder and CEO of Kino 33 Entertainment, says that the future of the Hallyu lies in the hands of the high-profile stars like Psy.

"It's really in the hands of people like Psy, [Korea's top directors like Benson Lee], or myself," he said.

"With the leverage, association, and the power that we have in the industry, now that we've all done projects together, it's our responsibility to be a leader in a way that when we do a project, you find a way to collaborate with more Korean staff, producers, talent, musicians, songwriters to help them gain more exposure."

The film producer also hopes that the Korean Wave will open up a wealth of opportunities for performers from other Asian nations.

"If we can open up the gate of opportunity to more Asian Americans or Asians from their native countries like Korea, Japan, or China, or in Southeast Asia, we need to spearhead that," he said.

"I think if we do that, we'll get a little notoriety in the skills that we have. But without that, this will just be a fad and we'll have to start all over again. So it's really important for people like Psy or Ji-woon Kim, Byung-hun Lee, or myself to really instill more Asians into projects."