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 two stints on the hit CBS reboot of Hawaii Five-0, where she portrayed Laura Hills, an aide to the governor and another two guest appearances on the ABC hit show Castle as Scarlet Jones, a for-hire operative.

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. She is also a very fine comedienne, as demonstrated in the unfortunately short-lived TV series In Case of Emergency (2007).

So, best wishes for a wonderful birthday, Kelly, from Dr. G, one of your biggest fans.