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Kelly Hu Wikipedia

Image:Kelly Hu0001.jpg|thumbnail|right|Kelly Hu
Kelly Ann Hu (born February 13, 1968) is an United States|American actress.

Hu was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her ethnic background is a mixture of Chinese, Hawaiian, and English.

Hu has had a lifelong interest in singing and dancing. She has also been interested in martial arts since her early childhood, when her older brother would arrange for her to fight neighbourhood boys. Hu's cousin was a successful model in Japan and Hu decided to follow her example. To gain publicity, she entered Miss Teen USA contest in 1985 and became the first Asian American to win the title. Ironically she found out after winning that she was prohibited from appearing in non-contest related activities for the year of her reign.

After working in Japan and Italy (where she became well-known as the star of a series of ads for Philadelphia brand cream cheese), Hu moved to Los Angeles and began her acting career in 1987 with a guest starring role on the sitcom Growing Pains. Hu followed this with appearances on series such as Night Court, Tour of Duty, 21 Jump Street, and Melrose Place and her first movie role in Friday the 13th (movie)|Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan. Hu also won the title of Miss Hawaii USA in 1993.

In 1995, Hu played an undercover police officer in the movie No Way Back. While the movie was not a major success it opened a new career direction for Hu in action adventure roles. She was then cast as Dr. Rae Chang on Sunset Beach (soap opera)|Sunset Beach for six months in 1997. Afterwards, Hu was cast as police officers Michelle Chan in the television series Nash Bridges (1997-1998) and Chen Pei Pei on Martial Law (1998-2000). Her subsequent movie appearances include The Scorpion King (2002), Cradle 2 the Grave (2003) and X2 (2003). She provided voice talents for the popular video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords as Visas Marr, the Sith woman who joins the Exile's party.

Hu resides in Brentwood, California where she is co-owner of a restaurant Basic Bites.

Last Modified:   2005-02-25