Kelly (also known as KJ) was born in a small town in Nebraska. The acting addiction started early making home movies with his brother and cousins and watching Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis films over and again. In the sixth grade came his first actual show playing Santa's Head-Elf in the school Christmas musical. From there he went on to play Danny Zuko in 'Grease' and Jesus in 'Godspell' both in high school. Knowing that acting was where he wanted to be, he continued to pursue it through college graduating from Nebraska Wesleyan University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. After graduation he spent the next year working as an Adjunct Professor teaching Stage Make-up for Wesleyan, acting in Iowa-produced films, and also with the Nebraska Shakespeare Festival.In August 2009 Kelly packed a car with six boxes and moved cross-country to New York, where he started auditioning within a day. It wasn't long before the Independent Film scene caught his attention. After a month in New York he was cast as the 'High School Bully', Zach, in Dear Diary: Shane's Story, an Indie-film being produced out of Los Angeles. In mid-September Kelly was brought to Los Angeles and within 24 hours was signed to The Wallis Agency for representation.