Minka Dumont Kelly (born June 24, 1980) is an American actress. She starred in the NBC series Friday Night Lights as Lyla Garrity from 2006 to 2009. Kelly
was born in Los Angeles, California. She is the only child of former
Aerosmith guitarist Rick Dufay and Maureen Kelly, an exotic dancer and
single mother who often moved with her daughter to different
communities, before settling in Albuquerque, New Mexico, by the time
Minka was in junior high school. She is of Irish and French descent.
At
19 years, after graduating from Valley High School in Albuquerque NM,
Kelly returned to Los Angeles. While on a test shoot for a modeling
agency, she was approached by a former Playboy Playmate interested in
managing her, and who placed Kelly as a receptionist at a surgeon's
office who would provide Kelly breast augmentation in exchange for hours
worked. She ultimately decided against the procedure, leading to her
being fired. However, the exposure to the medical field prompted her to
attend school for a year to become a surgeon's assistant; afterward, she
worked as a scrub tech.She spent four years in that vocation while also
auditioning as an actress before landing the new NBC television drama
Friday Night Lights, based on the high school football movie of that
name. In the interim, she had small roles in movies and shows, including
the film State's Evidence, and a recurring guest role on the TV sitcom
What I Like About You.
In
preparation for her role as cheerleader Lyla Garrity on Friday Night
Lights, she trained with the Pflugerville High School cheerleading
squad. Kelly received praise for her acting on the series, with The New
York Times calling her performance "heartbreaking".
She
shot a cameo for The Kingdom, alongside Jamie Foxx. Peter Berg, the
creator and pilot director of Friday Night Lights, directed the film.
Kelly was the lead actor on The CW's 2009 pilot Body Politic, which did
not go to series. Kelly was a member of the ensemble quartet that
starred in the CBS comedy pilot Mad Love, playing Kate, a Midwestern
girl who falls in love with Henry at the top of the Empire State
Building, but was replaced by Sarah Chalke.
Kelly
appeared with Alyson Hannigan, Jaime King, Emily Deschanel, and
Katharine McPhee in a video slumber party featured on FunnyorDie.com to
promote regular breast cancer screenings for the organization Stand Up 2
Cancer.
In
2010, ABC announced that Kelly would join the cast of the upcoming
remake of the television series Charlie's Angels. That same year, Kelly
also was named "Sexiest Woman Alive" in the annual Esquire
magazine feature. She accepted a role in the Off Broadway play Love,
Loss, and What I Wore for an April 27 through May 29, 2011 run with
Conchata Ferrell, AnnaLynne McCord, Anne Meara, and B. Smith.
















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