Kelly Hu Fights Her Way Onto the Big Screen

By Anna Mai

If you’ve seen Joel Silver’s “Cradle 2 the Grave,” you may have noticed the martial arts mastery of someone other than Jet Li -- the beautiful villainess Sona. Sona was played by none other than Kelly Hu, another rising Asian American actress who has used her martial arts abilities -- Kelly has a black belt in karate -- to land leading roles in film.

Kelly recently starred in “The Scorpion King” as the sorceress Cassandra opposite the World Wrestling Federation star, The Rock. In her next role, Kelly will play Yuriko Oyama AKA Lady Deathstrike in “X2,” the highly anticipated sequel to “X-Men” due out in May of this year.

Born on February 13, 1968 in Honolulu, Hawaii of English, Chinese, and Hawaiian descent, Kelly’s natural knack for performing began at the age of two, when her mother remembers her singing her own songs on the neighbor’s porch. Kelly eventually took her talent on the road in her first official performance -- her pre-school’s Christmas pageant.

And this was just the beginning. Kelly’s mother enrolled her in ballet, tap and acrobatic lessons at the age of five to satisfy her daughter’s insatiable appetite for performance. Even after all her own lessons, Kelly would meet up with Glenn, her brother, who was taking martial arts lessons at the time for some martial arts lessons at home.

Kelly’s passion for performing led her to twirl batons and march in various parades, roller skate, figure skate, and even hash it out in hockey competitions. Her desire to perform then led Kelly to the stage. At Kamehameha High School, Kelly signed up for the Drama program every semester of her entire four years. Her aspirations to become an actress grew more and more as she attended the International Thespian Conference in Indiana, watched her first Broadway play in New York, and visited Universal Studios in Los Angeles -- all through her Drama Club.

Scouted at a shopping mall by the same agent who represented her cousin in Japan, an already successful model, Kelly was encouraged to enter a pageant to help her own career in Japan. She entered the Miss Hawaii Teen USA pageant hoping to win the local title before taking off to Japan to continue her modeling career. After sweeping the competition, Kelly went on to compete for the Miss Teen USA crown on national television. Winning that title in 1985 catapulted Kelly into the public spotlight.

After graduation, Kelly continued to pursue her acting and modeling career. She modeled in Japan for four months and then moved to Los Angeles where she did commercials for Vidal Sassoon, Mary Kay Cosmetics, Jack in the Box, Clothestime, Bud Light, Ricoh Cameras, Thrifty Rental, Ivory Soap, and Dole Pineapple. Kelly’s first paying acting job came in the summer of 1987 when she landed a guest-starring role on the hit television show, “Growing Pains.”

It was all a domino effect from there. After the show, she was cast in various roles including those in Oliver Stone’s “The Doors,” “Strange Days,” “Friday the 13th: Jason Takes Manhattan,” “Night Court,” and “Melrose Place.” Her first action role, however, was with Russell Crowe in “No Way Back,” where Kelly was an undercover cop. It was then that Kelly decided to pursue formal training in martial arts.

Her role on “Melrose Place” led Aaron Spelling to cast her as Dr. Rae Chang in the daytime drama “Sunset Beach.” Kelly has also starred as Michelle Chan on “Nash Bridges and Chen Pei-Pei (aka Grace Chen) on the hit series “Martial Law.”

After fighting her way through primetime, Kelly decided to test out her marital arts abilities on the big screen. So far, things seem to be going just fine. She is becoming one of the most successful Asian American actresses in America, yet Kelly still maintains a modest outlook on life. While she still plans to take her career even higher, Kelly would love to one day open up a modeling school for girls in Hawaii.


Courtesy wireimage.com

Kelly Hu in "Cradle 2 the Grave"

Kelly will play Lady Deathstrike in the highly aniticipated sequel to "X-Men"