American actress Moira Kelly: biography and film roles

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

In June 1994, the world-famous W alt Disney animated film The Lion King was shown for the first time in several American cities.

The plot is familiar to everyone: the main character is the lion cub Simba, the prince and future king of the African savannah. All lions and other animals are happy about his birth, with the exception of Scar, Simba's uncle. He does everything to get rid of his interfering nephew and become the first contender for the title of king again.

One of those who contributed to the creation of the picture was the American actress Moira Kelly. She took part in the work on the cartoon as a voice actress and gave her voice to Nala, a childhood friend, and later the main character's lover.

For Moira Kelly, The Lion King has become the most successful project. However, the list of her roles does not end with Nala.

Biography and photos of Moira Kelly: childhood and adolescence

The future actress was born on March 6, 1968 in the USA, New York, in the Queens area,located on Long Island. Her parents, Ann and Peter Kelly, were immigrants from Ireland. Father is a violinist and mother is a nurse. Moira is the third child of six.

Parents were pious and deeply believing Catholics, tried to instill the same in all their children. Years later, in an interview, Kelly mentioned that she even wanted to become a nun as a child. Later, she had to choose between this aspiration and an acting career.

Moira Kelly attended Connequot High School and graduated in 1986. Then she entered Marymount Manhattan College, an independent private educational institution in New York.

During her school years, Moira Kelly participated in a small production of the musical "Annie". She played one of the minor roles in it. Initially, Kelly did not plan to perform on stage, but one of the girl actresses fell ill, and Moira Kelly had to replace her. It was this incident that influenced the girl in terms of choosing a life path, and she became an actress, not a nun, as she wanted in childhood.

Acting career

Kelly made her professional acting debut in 1991 when she played the role of Cinnamon Brown in the American mini-series Love, Lies and Murder.

The following year, Moira Kelly starred in the prequel to David Lynch's cult drama series Twin Peaks, Twin Peaks: Through the Fire, playing the role of Donna. This film contains explicit sex scenes with Kelly's character, so the actress, asdevout Catholic, had to go home and ask her priest for permission to shoot.

The priest replied that there is nothing reprehensible in this if the actress does it not for the sake of money, but solely for the sake of art and creative aspirations.

Filmography

Golden Ice is a romantic comedy film directed by Paul Michael Glazer. In this film, Moira Kelly played one of her first major roles.

The name of the heroine of the actress is Kate Mosley. She is a successful figure skater, rich and spoiled, striving to always be the best of the best. It is for these reasons that Kate always performs solo, without a partner. This could go on and on, but once in the life of a skater, the impudent and ambitious Doug Dorsey appears - a former hockey player who was forced to leave his favorite sport due to a serious injury. Initially, there is no sympathy between them, but the couple is forced to unite for the sake of a common goal - victory at the Winter Olympics.

In 1998, Marshall Herskovitz's film "The Honest Courtesan" was released about the life of young Veronica Franco, who has to become a prostitute because of her family's poverty. The main character was played by English actress Catherine McCormack, and Moira Kelly played the supporting role of Beatrice Venier. Why the courtesan is honest, the viewer will be able to find out in the course of the story.

Moira Kelly, whose voice in the original was the voice of the lioness Nala from the first part of The Lion King, also voiced her character in subsequent cartoons - The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride and The Lion King3: Hakuna Matata.”

Currently

At the moment, Moira Kelly's filmography has several dozen roles in films and TV shows. The last work of the actress is the role of Madeleine in the series "The Girl in the Bunker", released in 2018.

As for the personal life of Moira Kelly, it is known that in 2000 Kelly married businessman Steve Hewitt. The couple have two children: daughter Ella, born in 2001, and son Emon, born in 2003. The family lives in Flower Mound, Texas.