NCIS: Los Angeles Star Kelly Hu Shares Swimsuit Photo Saying “Love To You All”

NCIS: Los Angeles Kelly Hu is thrilled to hit 200k followers on her social media. Hu, 55, shared a video of herself posing in a swimsuit at the wheel of a boat, with a badge that showed her new follower count. “I can’t believe it! Thank you so much for following, Everyone! Love to you all!” she captioned the post. “We love you too! Please keep posting,” a fan commented. Hu has spent decades in the public eye and only gets better with age—here’s how she does it.

1. No Processed Food

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Hu focuses on enjoying a balanced diet with minimum processed foods. “I don’t stress about exercise as much as I used to,” she says. “I have three grandparents that lived well into their 90s, and none of them ever picked up a weight or stepped on a treadmill in their lives. I do, however, try to watch what I eat. I don’t eat fast or processed food. I enjoy cooking and spent most of the pandemic learning how to make and grow my own food on my balcony.”

2. World Traveler

Hu is passionate about world travel. “I love traveling,” she says. “Unfortunately, that came to a screeching halt due to the pandemic, but before that, I basically worked to finance my travel. For me, there’s nothing better than the experience of going to a foreign land where I don’t speak the language, allowing myself to get lost and discover new things and see how other people live. I love that feeling of being just outside of my comfort zone, where all of my senses become more heightened, and I am taking in all of my surroundings. It’s when I feel most alive and full of gratitude.”

3. Running Around Los Angeles

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Hu is a big fan of running in the city. “I exercise a lot,” she previously said. “I love going running. When I have a whole day to myself, I can go for a really nice long run. I usually run down the beach at Santa Monica and over on San Vicente. I try to take different paths all the time to make it interesting. On Saturdays or Sundays, I’ll take private martial arts lessons with my coach. I don’t get to work with him at all during the week, but I do make it a point to meet with him on weekends so I can keep myself in check and not let my form go. I certainly don’t know enough to call myself a master at anything, but I’ve studied two years of karate.”

4. No More Spam

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Hu enjoys cooking for her friends. “My whole philosophy is low fat and big taste,” she says. “I grew up on Spam. So for me, this is a really huge step. I like making fish and chicken breasts with salsas and low-fat sauces. I eat a lot more fresh fruit and vegetables. All these whole grains. I stay away from refined flour and sugar. I cook for friends quite a lot. I like having people over. There’s something to making food for people. It’s a way to show your affection and love. I don’t think you can go out and get a meal that’s prepared with as much love and care as when you stay home and cook.”

5. Gratitude For Career

Hu doesn’t take her career for granted. “It’s the best job anyone could ever do if you can get the work,” she says. I love the process. I love the connection. I love being on-set. I love the creative outlet. I love just about everything about it. I know how lucky I am to be able to do this amazing job for a living. I don’t take any of it for granted.”

NCIS has been on our screens since 2003, and features some of the most well-known actors and entertainers in the industry. From LL Cool J to Lauren Holly, these stars work hard to stay camera-ready on a show that’s been running for 20 years. So how do they do it? Through discipline and healthy habits—not to mention happiness and plenty of fun. Here’s how 20 cast members of NCIS take care of their health and wellness.

1. Maria Bello

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Maria Bello played Jacqueline Sloane. The actress loves Pilates and working out with a trainer. “I have a trainer named Aimee Carpenter, and she has this company called Indigo Mountain,” she says. “Some days we go for a hike, other days we do weights at my house. It's kind of like going with the flow instead of thinking, ‘I have to do 20 squats today.’ I also do Pilates at a studio called Embodiment.”

2. Pauley Perrette

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Pauley Perrette, 54, played Abby Sciuto. The actress prefers working out at home over going to a gym. "Learn the simple art of using your own body weight to work out,” she says. “There's no need to go to a gym. Push-ups, sit-ups, squats, wall presses, running up and down stairs. Everything you need to get in shape, you have.”

3. Lauren Holly

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Lauren Holly, 59, played Jenny Shepard. The actress swears by Bikram yoga to stay fit and happy. “I practice Bikram yoga, which is a certain kind of yoga and it’s in a very hot room,” she says. “I love it—it’s like my own personal form of meditation because I can’t think of anything (besides the heat) through the whole class. I haven’t been practicing since COVID, and I miss it so much. It really gave my brain a rest and my skin a glow.”

4. Chris O'Donnell

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Chris O'Donnell played G. Callen. He admits co-star LL Cool J inspired him to get fit. "His arms are insane – they're as hard as a wall," he says. "I'm just an average guy trying to keep my body in good condition so I can still do the things that I love. I don't want to give up sports. I want to move around with my kids and play football in the backyard. I have to work hard to stay fit."

5. LL Cool J

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LL Cool J played Sam Hanna. The actor works out with a personal trainer. “It’s important to have somebody there to push me. Every player needs a coach,” he says. “There’s nothing wrong with not having a trainer, but I prefer it. I do a minimum of four workouts a week — usually an hour on workdays and two hours the other days. I combine weights and cardio. I jump rope, run and lift weights. I do pull-ups and push-ups, plus core work with a ball, while lying on an incline. I also run up hills. I measure my heart rate on the treadmill. I don’t use monitoring devices or apps. Instead, I go by the mirror. I rarely use a scale.”

6. Daniela Ruah

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Daniela Ruah, 39, played Kensi Blye. The actress has been dancing since she was 5. “Do I dance at home? Sure,” she says. “Sometimes my son and I will prance around the house and dance. He responds to music so wonderfully, but I wouldn’t say it is something that brought me back into shape. I didn’t do any (dance) classes. I wish I had. It was mostly gym work with a personal trainer, jogging, working out with the kids, and eating healthily.”

7. Jennifer Esposito

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Jennifer Esposito, 50, played Alexandra Quinn. The actress was diagnosed with celiac disease in her 30s. “It’s an autoimmune disease, so you really have to stay on top of it,” she says. “When you feel a flare coming on, if you don’t take charge right then, it’ll cycle out of control. I feel great right now, but my killer is stress, and I’m still learning how to deal with that. Meditation helps a lot.”

8. Kelly Hu

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Kelly Hu, 55, played Lee Wuan Kai. The actress prefers a plant-based diet. “I think diet is everything,” she says. “What you put into your body is not just important for weight management but affects every aspect of your life. I’m a firm believer in eating clean, organic, healthy foods. I stopped eating fast and processed food years ago and I think that’s the number one thing I’ve done for my skin and body. Luckily I enjoy cooking and have the time to do a lot of my own food prep even when I’m shooting.”

9. Rena Sofer

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Rena Sofer, 54, played Margaret Allison Hart. The actress wants to look the best version of herself at any age. “I don’t diet,” she says. “I exercise quite often. I’m very into hula hooping. I hula hoop for like an hour probably five times a week and that keeps my stomach and my back very strong and I work out at home. We have a home gym so I get on the elliptical or do lunges around the house, stuff like that… I’m an older woman who just doesn’t expect to look like a twenty-year-old so I don’t try to. I just eat what I want, but I eat in moderation and I don’t smoke and don’t drink and I take care of myself.”

10. Vanessa Lachey

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Vanessa Lachey, 42, who played Jane Tennant, never skips breakfast. "I'm a big breakfast girl. If I had a choice, I would sit down to sausage links and a ham-and-cheese omelet and toast and fruit,” she says. “Sometimes—and this is probably the Asian in me coming out—I'll do scrambled eggs over rice with soy sauce. It's a big comfort food for me. When I'm at a hotel I'll call room service at 7 in the morning and be like, 'um, do you guys have white rice and soy sauce?'"

11. Katrina Law

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Katrina Law, 37, who played Jessica Knight, fits her training around her filming schedule. “I went old-school—working out with weights and doing just one body part at a time,” she says. “For a while, I was doing a HIIT circuit. But sometimes with interval cardio, I find myself getting injured and wearing myself out a lot. When you’re working 14-hour days, you tend to break down. I found it easier to do very lazy, long cardio. And also yoga to stay stable and Zen out.”

12. Scott Bakula

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Scott Bakula, 68, played Dwayne Pride. The actor loves running, even in the heat. “Now that I'm healthy I try to run three or four times a week, a minimum of 45 minutes each time,” he says. “And then depending on if I'm training for something, I'm upping that for long runs on the weekend. Even if I'm not, when I have time, I do six to 10 miles on Sundays… I mix it up. Sometimes I'll go 30 minutes and walk for one, and then go 10 and walk for one. Sometimes I'll run 15 minutes, then walk for one; 14 minutes, then walk for one, and go down from there.”

13. Marina Sirtis

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Marina Sirtis, 68, played Orli Elbaz. The actress believes in aging gracefully over too much cosmetic surgery. “It doesn’t make sense for actresses to have plastic surgery because there’s no point in looking 40 when you’re 60 because you know what? They’re gonna hire somebody who’s 40,” she says. “They’re not gonna hire you – first of all, you look like you’ve been caught in a wind tunnel! So it doesn’t make sense for actresses.”

14. Cote de Pablo

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Cote de Pablo, 43, played Ziva David on the show. The actress swears by regular yoga sessions. “Four or five days a week, I do open flow Vinyasa [breath-synchronized yoga],” she says. “I bring a teacher, who happens to be a great friend, to my house. You look at this woman's body and you go, ‘Wow, the benefits of yoga!’ You can see that there's a lift everywhere. And it's completely natural. There's nothing fake about her body. I love natural beauty.”

15. Emily Wickersham

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Emily Wickersham, 39, played Eleanor Bishop. The actress does regular Pilates sessions and plays tennis. "For me it's about feeling good first... and I've realized that it comes from what I choose to eat," she says. "Once I started paying attention to what I was eating and becoming conscious of what made me feel good or bad, it was a game-changer."

16. Jamie Lee Curtis

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Jamie Lee Curtis, 64, played Dr. Samantha Ryan. The actress loves yoga, Pilates, and taking walks with her friends. “Fluids are key,” she says. “I walk with girlfriends. [It’s] incredibly good for you.”

17. Marisol Nichols

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Marisol Nichols, 49, played ATF Special Agent Zoe Keates. The actress taught herself to cook, and says it’s been a game changer. “My food philosophy is this: You’re not going to stick with any lifestyle change unless it tastes good,” she says. “Otherwise it’s torture. And why would you do that to yourself? I also recently rediscovered celery sticks and peanut butter. Remember that from when you were a kid? They’re so good. I also live on Zevia soda, which you can buy at Whole Foods.”

18. Jon Cryer

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Jon Cryer, 58, played Dr. Cyril Taft. The actor is a big fan of running. “I train five days a week but I only do three days of distance work,” he says. “I either do it swimming, running or biking. Now because I'm not really training for a triathlon, because triathlon season isn't till late August and September, now I just run pretty much. I run and I work out with weights with my trainer.

19. Bellamy Young

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Bellamy Young, 53, played ATF Special Agent Melinda Stone. The actress walks six miles a day on her treadmill and follows a vegan diet. “I think veganism has a branding issue, but other than that, it’s a great way to live,” she says. “I know a lot of people now like to go with ‘plant-based diet’ instead. I guess that makes it a little bit more palatable, but for me it was the answer to a myriad of things that weren’t working in my life. I had terrible cystic acne, no energy at all, I didn’t always digest food perfectly. And so it’s never been difficult in terms of a row to ho or anything. It’s just always been, um, I’ve just been lucky that my body and my heart were in line.”

20. Paula Newsome

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Paula Newsome, 50, played Jackie Vance. The actress loves the healthy lifestyle she enjoys in Los Angeles. “I have been really fortunate in that I’ve been able to work a lot,” she says. “In New York it was more of a struggle. At that time there was not as much film and television production. In LA I could make a decent living as an actress and LA is also great for my health. I eat healthier and work out more here I don’t think it would have been possible in New York. The quality of life here is different.”

You star Nicole Kang went on vacation to beautiful Santorini, Greece, and didn’t quite get the pictures she wanted. Kang, who plays Lynn on the show, shared pictures of herself lounging on a boat, looking stunning in a wine-colored bikini. Another reel showed her walking up Santorini’s many stairs, looking exhausted. “Trying to give more windswept than winded but the stairs are winning,” she jokingly captioned the post. Here’s how Kang feels about her part in You, and diversity in Hollywood.

1. Joining the Cast

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Kang was incredibly nervous when she joined the cast of You. “I was in the show, You, and that was a huge shift for me,” she says. “It’s my same producer and even the same director for some episodes at Batwoman, Marcos Siega, who have seen me grow up. I remember I had never really been on a set before; I had been an extra and did some student films, a ton of theater but that was the first time that I had been on a set of that scale before. I remember I was in hair and makeup and felt like the most pampered and fabulous person (laughs). I was walking around in my own music video. They told me we are going to be filming episode two and I had only received episode one, so as a theater or as any actor, I always thought my first time I was going to be so prepared and so ready but here I was sitting in a full panic in hair. I just told myself to breathe.”

2. Batwoman Role

Kang is proud of her Batwoman role (as Mary Hamilton) and hopes there will be many more like it. “Don’t we just love strong female characters and female empowerment?” she says. “I think that’s what our show arguably does best. I think, you know, if you look at our top cast, it’s overwhelmingly women, and that doesn’t happen. And we aren’t talking about men; we aren’t needing men to tell the audience about ourselves. That is my favorite thing. That is also one of my favorite things about Mary. She is unapologetically herself in the way she dresses, in the way she comes into a room, in the way she takes on risk.”

3. New York Roots

Kang has a soft spot in her heart for New York. “I always say New York was my coming of age story, it was my cultural awakening. In that way, I owe it so much,” she says. “All of the hard lessons and the big triumphs for me, at the beginning of my career, all happened in New York City, which is like the prologue of a book. The move to LA was for work since I am in Vancouver shooting Batwoman. I thought it would be great to have my US-base be in LA since I am here for ten months out of the year.”

4. She’s an Empath

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Kang goes out of her way to be kind to newcomers. “I am such an empath; when we have guest stars, I can feel their energy,” she says. “I like to say, you are doing incredible. If we have time and a lot of scenes together I definitely make an effort to rehearse with them. My favorite part is when you feel the trust and you can feel entitled in a good way to the space and the scene. Maybe you can try something or something comes about that you didn’t anticipate— it’s like lightning in a bottle—that’s what we are trying to capture.”

5. Championing Diversity

Kang is proud of her Korean heritage, and representing it on screen. “Diversity, it’s this beautiful thing,” she says. “It’s this beautiful palette, because, listen, we tell incredible stories, but the people in Gotham, I think that’s a really, really great, exciting thing about it; it goes along with the tempo and the themes of our show in the first place. If we’re going to make another show in Gotham in 2019, 2020, then what are we going to say this time that hasn’t already been said before? The thing is, is that Gotham is made up of a bunch of people, a bunch of different people who have tons of different layered experiences.”