Moira Kelly

Early life

Moira Kelly was born in Queens, New York, on March 6, 1968. She is the daughter of a trained concert violinist, Peter, and a nurse, Anne, who are Irish immigrants. Kelly is the third of six children and was raised in Ronkonkoma, New York. She was brought up as a Catholic. Kelly attended Connetquot Senior High School in Bohemia, Long Island, graduating in the class of 1986. Later, she attended Marymount Manhattan College.

In her youth, Kelly was cast in a small role in her high school's 1984 production of Annie. Due to illness, the girl playing Miss Hannigan was replaced, causing a series of cast changes leading to her choice of career. A devout Catholic, Kelly had to decide between acting and her childhood ambition of becoming a nun.{{Cite web | access-date = 2010-01-08 | archive-date = 2019-12-14 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20191214090329/http://www.allmovie.com/artist/moira-kelly-37546/bio | url-status = live

Career

Kelly made her professional acting debut in the fact-based made-for-TV movie Love, Lies and Murder, playing teenager Cinnamon Brown, who was coerced by her father into killing his wife and her stepmother, Linda Brown. She was originally going to have a starring role as Polly Pry in Trey Parker and Matt Stone's Cannibal! The Musical, but Kelly was convinced not to do so by her agent out of concerns it could potentially ruin her career, and was ultimately replaced with Toddy Walters, though she was still credited in the end credits under her initials "M.K." as "the Dropout". She went on to have small roles in the films The Boy Who Cried Bitch, Hi-Life, and Billy Bathgate before being cast as Donna Hayward in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. For that film, she went home and got permission from her priest because of an explicit sex scene. In the same year, she starred opposite D. B. Sweeney in the romantic comedy The Cutting Edge (during whose filming Kelly suffered a broken ankle, which cost her a part in Penny Marshall's film A League of Their Own) and played two roles opposite Robert Downey Jr. in Chaplin. According to a TV Guide interview, before taking on her role in * Daybreak*, Kelly once again asked her priest for advice: "Being a Catholic, I wondered if it would be against my religion to play a girl who has premarital sex." The priest told her "it was okay, as long as my artistic intentions were true and I wasn't doing it for the notoriety or the money."

She has since appeared in the films With Honors, Little Odessa, The Tie That Binds, and Dangerous Beauty, amongst others, and provided the adult voice of Nala in Disney's The Lion King, The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, and The Lion King 1½. In her independent film career, Kelly had the starring role of activist Dorothy Day in Entertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day Story and starred alongside Glenn Close in The Safety of Objects. She played Helen Keller in the made-for-TV movie Monday After the Miracle, which broadcast on November 15, 1998, on CBS.

Kelly starred in the CBS drama To Have & to Hold opposite Jason Beghe before playing Mandy Hampton in the first season of The West Wing. In 2003, Kelly began playing single mother Karen Roe on the teen drama One Tree Hill. She also directed two episodes of the series: "Resolve" (2007) and "I Slept with Someone in Fall Out Boy and All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me" (2006). In the fifth season, she ceased to be a regular cast member, but made guest appearances in the 100th episode and the sixth-season finale. She has made guest appearances in television shows such as Heroes, Law & Order, and Numb3rs. Kelly has also appeared in the films Remember the Daze, A Smile as Big as the Moon, Taken Back: Finding Haley, and Girl in the Bunker.

Kelly reprised her role of Nala from the Disney animated movie series The Lion King in adventure video game Disney Dreamlight Valley released in 2023.

Personal life

On August 5, 2000, Kelly married Steve Hewitt, a Texas businessman. They have two children, a daughter Ella and a son Eamon. Kelly had previously maintained a residence in Wilmington, North Carolina, for eleven years.

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

As a director

References

References

1. MacNeill, Julianne. (August 28, 2024). "Moira Kelly Had an Impressive Film and TV Career — From Animated Films to Teen Dramas".
2. "Anne Kelly - St Joseph, Ronkonkoma".
3. Giles, Jeff. (1993-01-03). "Moira Kelly; Playing Two Roles in 'Chaplin' While Dreaming of Joan of Arc". [[The New York Times]].
4. (January 3, 1993). "UP AND COMING: Moira Kelly; Playing Two Roles in 'Chaplin' While Dreaming of Joan of Arc". New York Times.
5. "The Making of Cannibal! The Musical {{!}} Chapter 5 - Moira, Moira, Moira".
6. (February 1993). "A Message from Marrs".
7. Jastrzebska, Edyta. (24 October 2024). ""We Just Weren't the Right Thing for Her." Here's Why Mandy Suddenly Disappeared from The West Wing and Was Never Heard from Again".
8. Leidy, Levi. (October 18, 2024). "The 'One Tree Hill' Cast: Where Are They Now?".
9. Erbanez, Kristina. (28 September 2022). "Meet the Voice Actors of Disney Dreamlight Valley's Cast".
10. "Mr. Richard Glenn Hewitt Obituary - Dallas, TX".
11. (13 May 2017). "This is where all the stars of One Tree Hill are now.".
12. "Moira Kelly".
13. Ingram, Hunter. (15 July 2019). "'The Lion King's' original voice of Nala bows down to Beyoncé". [[Jacksonville Daily News]].
14. Polowy, Kevin. (25 March 2022). "'The Cutting Edge' at 30: D.B. Sweeney talks toe picks, the Pamchenko and how the figure skating rom-com changed his life".
15. Frederick, Brittany. (7 August 2019). "Why The Cutting Edge still holds a gold medal in movie history".
16. Velocci, Carli. (21 May 2017). "'Twin Peaks': Where's Donna? Lara Flynn Boyle's Odd History With the Show".
17. Heching, Dan. (2023-01-24). "Brendan Fraser’s 7 best roles before his Oscar-nominated turn in ‘The Whale’".
18. Leydon, Joe. (30 September 1996). "Entertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day Story".
19. "15 THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT THE WEST WING".
20. Mazzeo, Esme. (October 26, 2021). "Hilarie Burton says 'One Tree Hill' costar Moira Kelly 'saved my life' by telling her to 'run' from the toxic set".
21. Raines, Leigh. (12 August 2013). "Drop Dead Diva Review: The Last Hurrah".
22. "Who plays Melanie Cortez in Panic? – Moira Kelly".
23. "Nala Voice - Disney Dreamlight Valley (Video Game)".
24. Garner, Glenn. (October 25, 2021). "Hilarie Burton Tearfully Says 'One Tree Hill' Costar Moira Kelly 'Saved My Life': She 'Told Me to Run'".