Information • Biography

A veteran model and commercial actress, Minka Kelly had her breakthrough role as Lyla Garrity, the doggedly loyal, but deeply conflicted head cheerleader on Peter Berg’s small screen adaptation of his surprise hit film, “Friday Night Lights” (NBC, 2006- ). Prior to her first regular series role, Kelly appeared in commercials for Old Navy and Johnson & Johnson, and modeled for a Madge Cosmetics ad campaign. She broke into acting with an episode of the 1960s-themed drama, “American Dreams” (NBC, 2002-05), before landing a three-episode arc on the WB sitcom, “What I Like About You” (2002-06). After appearing on an episode of the short-lived college comedy “Cracking Up” (Fox, 2003-04), Kelly scored her role on “Friday Night Lights,” portraying Lyla Garrity as a near-perfect All-American girl, whose overreaching sweetness aggravates her boyfriend, starting quarterback Jason Street (Scott Porter), even as she cares for him after an injury leaves him paralyzed from the waist down. Kelly then made the jump to features, filming the Jamie Foxx-Colin Farrell political thriller “The Kingdom” (2007), about a team of counter terrorism investigators who find themselves targets for assassination after setting out to find the perpetrators behind a deadly attack on Americans in a Middle Eastern country.