Hey there!

Originally from Avon, CT, Kelley made her way into the world of theatre at age 9 as a burping, boisterous "Red Head" in a Hartford Children's Theatre production of The Snow Queen. Ever since, Kelley's been drawn to working in all kinds of theatre and performance, across genres and mediums.

 

Kelley went to The Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts and earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre from Emerson College. As an actress, Kelley spent the first ten years of her career performing in regional theaters and on commercial cruise lines in musicals and plays. Kelley won the 2017 and 2018 New Hampshire Professional Theatre Awards for Best Supporting Actress in a Play. 

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Over the past five years, Kelley has expanded her love for theater into the classroom. She is a resident teaching artist with the Shadow Box Theatre Company, Kelley uses theatre as a social emotional learning tool through puppetry, visual arts, acting, movement, and creative storytelling. Although she works primarily with students in Pre-K through 3rd grade, Kelley enjoys working with students of all ages across the five boroughs. 

 

Currently, Kelley is the Program Manger for Midori & Friends, an NYC-based educational non-profit that provides accessible musical education programs to children with little to-no-access to the arts. Kelley helps to oversee the many music-education partnership programs that Midori & Friends brings to public schools across the five boroughs. In her spare time, Kelley works as an educational consultant for the NYC Public Schools Arts Office. She manages the CREATE program and supports the Support for Arts Instruction Initiative, increasing quality arts instruction and professional development to over 350 schools across NYC yearly. She is honored to pour her personal mission of bringing quality arts education to students whose access is limited into the work she does in the NYC educational non-profit sector and the NYC Department of Education.

 

Kelley is a City College of New York Theatre Ed alumni, having earned her Masters in Science of Education. And, in her spare time, Kelley still performs! She recently played Mary Poppins at the Arts in Motion Theatre Company in Fryeburg, ME.

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When she's not involved in something theatrical, Kelley loves to get outdoors, run, hike, travel, and do puzzles. She believes that no banana should be consumed without its partner, peanut butter.