Kelly Hu has established a significant career as a voice actor in animation, including numerous roles in anime and anime-influenced productions. Born on February 13, 1968, in Honolulu, Hawaii, Hu began her career as a model and beauty queen, notably becoming the first Asian American to win the Miss Teen USA title in 1985. She transitioned into on-screen acting in the late 1980s before expanding her work to include extensive voiceover roles in the 2000s and 2010s.

One of Hu's notable anime voice roles is Okiku in the 2007 series Afro Samurai. In this stylized, action-driven series, she voices Okiku, a young woman with healing abilities who has a complex and tragic history with the protagonist, Afro Samurai. Okiku is revealed to be the adult version of a character named Otsuru, and Hu voices the mature iteration of this role, bringing emotional depth and a sense of world-weary experience to the character. She also voiced characters in the 2009 Afro Samurai video game adaptation.

Beyond Afro Samurai, Hu has voiced characters in several other projects within the anime and action-animation genres. Her extensive voice work includes the role of Stacy Hirano, a major recurring character in the long-running Disney Channel series Phineas and Ferb, which, while an American production, draws heavily from anime visual styles and storytelling conventions. In the superhero genre, she has played Cheshire in Young Justice, a series known for its anime-influenced action sequences and serialized narrative, and Karai in the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series. Her film voice roles in the DC animated universe include Laira in Green Lantern: Emerald Knights, Lady Shiva in Batman: Soul of the Dragon, and Cheshire again in Catwoman: Hunted.

Hu has also built a substantial career voicing characters in video games, many of which share a strong aesthetic and audience overlap with anime. Her notable work in this area includes Visas Marr in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords, Inspector Jane Teng in Sleeping Dogs, and several roles in the Mortal Kombat franchise, where she has voiced D'Vorah, Li Mei, and Madame Bo in various installments. She has also voiced characters in major franchises like Batman: Arkham Origins, where she played the assassin Lady Shiva.

Throughout her voice acting career, Hu has participated in several recurring professional collaborations. She has worked multiple times with Warner Bros. Animation and DC Entertainment, taking on different roles across various films and series within the DC animated universe. Her work on the Mortal Kombat video game series also represents an ongoing collaboration with the game developer NetherRealm Studios, appearing in multiple titles over several years. In the realm of television animation, she had a long-running role as Stacy Hirano on Phineas and Ferb, appearing in the series from 2007 to 2015 and reprising the role for subsequent television films.

Among her notable achievements in the field, Hu has been recognized for bringing significant depth to complex characters in action-oriented animation. Her portrayal of Karai in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was notable for spanning the character's evolution from an antagonist to an ally. Her casting in Afro Samurai placed her alongside acclaimed actors such as Samuel L. Jackson and Ron Perlman. The breadth of her work, spanning from all-ages comedy like Phineas and Ferb to mature, violent series like Afro Samurai and the Mortal Kombat games, demonstrates her versatility as a performer in the anime and animation industry.