This brown-haired cutie started acting in 2004, at first mostly appearing as a guest star in a handful of TV series and appearing in a few lesser-known movies, but she has achieved most of her success to date since the fall of 2006 when she landed a leading role in the new NBC dramatic series Friday Night Lights.
Minka Kelly, the daughter of Rick Dufay, who was once a part of the popular rock band Aerosmith, was born on June 24, 1980.
Kelly broke into the acting world in 2004 with a guest appearance as Monica in the TV show Cracking Up, a very short-lived, nine-episode comedy series starring Jason Schwartzman, Molly Shannon, Christopher McDonald, Caitlin Wachs, and Jake Sandvig.
Later that year, Kelly guest starred on Drake & Josh, which starred Drake Bell and Josh Peck.
In 2005, Kelly appeared in her first film—the largely unsuccessful thriller Devil’s Highway, and also guest starred on American Dreams, a sitcom starring Brittany Snow, Tom Verica, Gail O’Grady, Will Estes, and Vanessa Lengies.
However, her first real substantial role, also in 2005, is considered that of Ricki for two episodes in the sitcom about sisters, What I Like About You, starring Amanda Bynes and Jennie Garth. Also that year, Kelly dated Donald Faison, the actor most known as Dr. Christopher Turk in the hit TV medical comedy Scrubs, which stars Zach Braff, and for his breakthrough role as Murray Lawrence Duvall in 1995’s Clueless, starring Alicia Silverstone, Brittany Murphy, Paul Rudd, and Wallace Shawn.
After What I Like About You, Kelly appeared in two films in 2006, The Pumpkin Karver and State’s Evidence, neither of which did much to propel her career. However, later that year Kelly snagged a lead role on the new NBC drama Friday Night Lights as head cheerleader Lyla Garrity, the role for which she is currently most famous. Friday Night Lights also stars Kyle Chandler, Connie Britton, Gauis Charles, Zach Gilford, Taylor Kitsch, Adrianne Palicki, Jesse Plemons, Scott Porter, and Aimee Teegarden.
Kelly also recently finished shooting her appearance as Ms. Ross in her latest—and hopefully most successful—film, The Kingdom, which will star Jaime Foxx, Chris Cooper, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, and Jeremy Piven, and is set for release later this year. The Kingdom’s plot centers on a bombing of an American facility in the Middle East, which is investigated by U.S. government officials. The movie is based on the May 12, 2003 bombings of the Riyadh compound in Saudi Arabia.
YUDDY
