ACF 1348: Happy Birthday, Kelly Hu

A talented and gorgeous actress, Kelly Hu was born February 13, 1968 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Of Chinese, Hawaiian, and English ancestry, she is a fourth generation American. The first Asian-American to be crowned Miss Teen USA (1985), she was also named Miss Hawaii in 1993. After a modeling stint in Japan and Italy, she moved to Hollywood and got her first big break in 1987 in the TV show Growing Pains.

She has since appeared in scads of television shows. I think I first became aware of her when she co-starred in Marshall Law (1998-200) with Sammo Hung. She had a recurring role on the hit CBS reboot of Hawaii Five-0 as Laura Hills, an aide to the governor. Unfortunately, her character was killed off at the end of the 2011 spring season. (I'm generally not a fan of the device, but this is one situation where I'd love to see a dead character's twin appear.) As a character named Pearl, she's appeared in eight episodes (to date) of The Vampire Diaries.

As Laura Hills in Hawaii Five-0

And of course, she's been in numerous films, including:

The Doors (1991)
The Scorpion King (2002)
Cradle 2 the Grave (2003)
X2 (2003, a.k.a. X-Men 2: X-Men United)

Her work in action films benefited from her being a black belt in karate. Kelly is also a very fine comedienne, as she demonstrated in the unfortunately short-lived TV series In Case of Emergency (2007). She's in two films -- White Frog and Under the Hula: Life Within the Dance) -- that are currently in post-production.

So, best wishes for a wonderful birthday, Kelly, from Dr. G, one of your biggest fans. Looking forward to seeing you often on both movie and TV screens for many years to come.