Kelly Ann Hu (born February 13, 1968 in Honolulu, Hawaii) is an American actress of English, Chinese, and native Hawaiian descent. She'd long been interested in singing and dancing, but also took up martial arts when her brother enrolled her in some classes. She even got interested in modeling since her cousin was one.
She took up various jobs, including modeling and drama, before she became the first Asian-American Miss Teen USA in 1985. After her "reign" was over, she took up modeling again, and then moved to Los Angeles to take up acting.
Her first role was a guest star as Mike's girlfriend on Growing Pains. She got small roles in several other shows, and a role as Jason's victim in Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, along with a number of other small film roles.
She then took up pageants again, becoming Miss Hawaii in 1993, and coming in just short of the final three in the subsequent Miss USA pageant.
Then she went back to acting, getting roles in Nash Bridges and Martial Law. She then broke into films with The Scorpion King, getting more film roles, TV roles, and even voice acting roles. And she's also into politics, in terms of getting other Asian-Americans to participate.
Recently, there's been a trend that if there's a need for a Dragon Lady in a comicbook adaptation, odds are that she'll be playing her.
It's people like this that make you realize... how little you've accomplished.
Her works include:
- Afro Samurai - Okiku
- Army Wives - Jordana Davis (4 episodes)
- Arrow - China White
- Batman: Arkham Origins and Batman: Soul of the Dragon - Lady Shiva
- Batman: Under the Red Hood - Ms. Li
- Battlefield Hardline - Detective Khai
- Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 - Suki Toyama
- Cradle 2 the Grave - Sona
- CSI: NY - Det. Kaile Maka (4 episodes)
- Extinct - News Reporter
- Finding 'Ohana - Leilani
- Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan - Eva Watanabe
- Growing Pains- Melia (3 episodes)
- Hawaii Five-0 - Laura Hills (2010-2011, 3 episodes)
- Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords - Visas Marr
- The Legend of Vox Machina - Doctor Anna Ripley
- The Librarian: Quest for the Spear - Lana
- Mortal Kombat X - D'Vorah, Sindel, and Frost
- Mortal Kombat 11 - D'Vorah
- Mortal Kombat 1 - Li Mei
- NUMB3RS - Alice Chen (1 episode)
- Pacific Blue - Wendy Trang (1 episode)
- Phineas and Ferb - Stacy Hirano
- Robot Chicken - Various roles
- Scooby-Doo! and the Samurai Sword - Miyumi, Ms Miromoto
- Scooby-Doo! and the Spooky Scarecrow - Maizy
- The Scorpion King - Cassandra
- Sleeping Dogs (2012) - Inspector Teng
- The Spectacular Spider-Man - Sha Shan-Nguyen
- Stiletto - Detective Hanover
- Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters - Miya Kimanyan
- Surf Ninjas - Ro-May
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) - Oroku Karai / Hamato Miwa
- The Tournament - Lai Lai Zhen
- The Vampire Diaries - Pearl
- Warehouse 13 - Abigail Cho
- What Women Want - Girl in lotto commercial
- X2: X-Men United - Yuriko Oyama/Deathstrike
- Young Justice (2010) - Cheshire
Tropes associated with her:
- Action Girl: Some of her heroic roles will make use of her martial arts background.
- Dark Action Girl: When she's playing a villain with fighting skills.
- Ms. Fanservice: Many of her roles will make use of the fact that she is an extraordinarily beautiful woman. Even in her voice acting roles, her smooth, sexy contralto tends to make her characters very alluring.
