| Biography: |
Kelly is from Oregon, but spent much of his life, in Washington, DC. He graduated from Oberlin College, where he met his wife, the award-winning modern dancer, Carolyn Hall. They live in Brooklyn, New York. Kelly has acted on stage in New York and around the country. He recently garnered strong reviews playing the "blithely cocky" (Ben Brantley, NYTimes) & "nicely nasty" (Clive Brnes, NYPost) Oct ... show all Kelly is from Oregon, but spent much of his life, in Washington, DC. He graduated from Oberlin College, where he met his wife, the award-winning modern dancer, Carolyn Hall. They live in Brooklyn, New York. Kelly has acted on stage in New York and around the country. He recently garnered strong reviews playing the "blithely cocky" (Ben Brantley, NYTimes) & "nicely nasty" (Clive Brnes, NYPost) Octavius Caesar in the Broadway production of "Julius Caesar" starring two time Academy Award Winner Denzel Washington. The production also starred Colm Feore ("24", "Empire", "Sum Of All Fears"), Eamonn Walker ("Oz", "Lord of War"), Bill Sadler ("The Shawshank Redemption", "Roswell"), and Tamara Tunie ("Law & Order:SVU"). Other Off Broadway work includes the Off Broadway premiere of Terrence McNally's new play, "Some Men", which had an extended run at Second Stage Theatre, "Boy" with T. R. Knight ("Grey's Anatomy") and Miriam Shor ("Hedwig & The Angry Inch"), "The Ladies of the Corridor", and "In World's Unknown", written and directed by Don Winslow ("The Death & Life of Bobby Z", "Close To Home"). Regional productions have included the premiere of "Melissa Arctic", written by Craig Wright ("Six Feet Under", "Lost"), "The Real Thing" and "Arcadia", both by Tom Stoppard, "Quills," by Doug Wright, and "Born Yesterday". Kelly is also a former member of the Tony Award-winning Oregon Shakespeare Festival acting company. His father Les is a former U. S. Representative. His mother Sue worked at the Wilderness Society and The National Abortion Rights Action League, and before that, she and her sister Ann co-ran her family's restaurant in Tumalo, Oregon. Kelly's first job was washing dishes at the restaurant. His parents are both now semi retired. Les is working on his first novel, a political thriller, and Sue is a photographer. Kelly's interest in performing was most likely passed on from his parents. His mother was a singer and his father was a politician. In fact, Kelly's first on screen appearance was in a political ad for his father, where, in an attempt to counter the rather knee jerk label of "big spending Democrat", he looked into the camera and essentially called his dad cheap, talking about his father's penchant for "free air" at gas stations and "discount chewing gum." His sister Stacy is a social worker, living in Montana with her husband, Peter, and their two children, Morgan and Nicole. Kelly and his sister appeared in plays together in their early years, before Stacy left acting to pursue other interests. Locals, however, still fondly recall Stacy's farewell performance in the groundbreaking Sisters Junior High School production of "The Mouse That Roared", which played to great acclaim in Central Oregon in the Spring of 1980. His friend since high school, Ben Mankiewicz, is the weekend host of Turner Classic Movies, reporter for TMZ, and former Co-Host of "The Young Turks" radio program on Air America. Kelly has long tried to figure out how Ben's position on any of these shows could help his career. Thus far, however, Mankiewicz insists that Kelly must actually appear in a "classic movie" before he is mentioned on his "Classic Movie" program. Kelly continues to believe this is nonsense, as his friend's idea of "classic movies" are "Fletch" and "Top Gun." hide |
