I did everything I could to stay in college and pay my own way, so I think that if success hadn't come so quickly, I would still be pursuing it.

Career
Kelly made her professional acting debut in the made-for-TV movie Love Lies and Murder playing a teenage murderer. Kelly is the third of six children and was raised in Ronkonkoma. She was brought up as a Catholic.

She is best known for playing Kate Moseley in the 1992 film The Cutting Edge as well as single mother Karen Roe on the teen drama One Tree Hill White House media consultant Mandy Hampton in the first season of The West Wing and for voicing Nala in The Lion King and its sequel The Lion King II: Simba's Pride.