Biography
This page uses content from the Jean Louisa Kelly biography page on the English version of Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Rotten Tomatoes disclaims any and all warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of the content.
Jean Louisa Kelly (born March 9, 1972) is an American actress and singer. She was born in Worcester, Massachusetts. Her father was a high school English teacher and her mother taught piano [1]. She graduated in 1994 from Columbia University's Columbia College with a B.A. in English.
Before attending college she had already had roles in the original Broadway cast of Sondheim's Into the Woods and in the film Uncle Buck with John Candy. She also took roles in college productions, including with the Barnard Gilbert and Sullivan Society. After graduation, her most prominent role was as Rowena Morgan, the muse for the title character of Mr. Holland's Opus. She also became well known in the mid-1990s for a series of television commercials she did for MCI long distance in which she played a telephone operator who challenged AT&T.
Her broadest exposure comes from her recent roles in situation comedies, first guest starring in such shows as Mad About You, and then as a cast member of the short-lived NBC version of Cold Feet and the more successful Yes, Dear. On April 30, 2006 she guest starred in the ABC drama Grey's Anatomy.
Kelly currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband, entertainment lawyer James Pitaro, and is the mother of a 2-year old son, Sean. Kelly is also best friends with actress Jennifer Garner, whom she interviewed for the June 2005 issue of Self magazine.
External links
- Official Jean Louisa Kelly website
- Self magazine interview transcript (June, 2005)
- March 1996 article in the Columbia University Record
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify the biographical information on this page under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.

