Kelly is a proud Oregon boy, but he spent about half of his life in Washington, DC. He’ll claim either, depending on which seems most likely to get him a free drink. He graduated from Oberlin College, in Ohio, where there wasn’t a whole lot to do. Fortunately he met dancer Carolyn Hall, and they were able to keep each other entertained. So much so, in fact, that they got married. They live in Brooklyn, New York. Carolyn won a NY Dance & Performance (“Bessie”) Award for her Body of Work, and continues to dance, while also pursuing the stereotypical modern dancer second career of Historical Marine Ecology. Kelly has acted on stage all over the place, in New York and around the country, recently winning a Drama Desk Award for Signature Theatre’s revival of the AR Gurney play, “The Wayside Motor Inn.” He also appeared on Broadway, opposite two time Academy Award Winner Denzel Washington, in the revival of “Julius Caesar.” He got some nice reviews playing the “blithely cocky” (Ben Brantley, NYTimes) & “nicely nasty” (Clive Barnes, NYPost) Octavius Caesar . He is also a former member of the Tony Award-winning Oregon Shakespeare Festival acting company. Kelly’s 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, where Kelly had his first job washing dishes. His parents are both now semi retired. Kelly’s interest in performing was most likely passed on from his parents, his mother being a singer and his father a politician. In fact, Kelly’s first on screen appearance was in a political ad for his father which was attempting to counter his Republican rival’s attempt to label him a “big spending Democrat”. Kelly played The Son, a part he was literally born to play, 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. She and her brother 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 co-host of Turner Classic Movies, host of The Young Turks’ “What The Flick?”, and former host of “At The Movies.” Kelly has long maintained that Ben’s celebrity could be put to greater use furthering Kelly’s career. Mankiewicz, however, continues to insist that Kelly actually appear in a “classic movie” before he is mentioned on his “classic movie” program. Kelly believes this is nonsense, as his friend’s idea of a “classic movie” is “Top Gun.”