Minka Kelly

Minka Kelly (born June 24, 1980) is an American actress who was raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She currently stars in the NBC series Friday Night Lights as head cheerleader Lyla Garrity. Minka Kelly was born in Los Angeles, California, and is the daughter of former Aerosmith guitarist Rick Dufay. According to Kelly, her childhood was "pretty rough," and she held a resentment for the man that abandoned her and her mother. However, at seventeen, she decided to try and reconcile and invited him out to New Mexico.

After graduating from highschool, Minka Kelly returned to Los Angeles with her father to pursue acting as a hobby while she went to school to become a surgical technician. However, after her first acting class she got "hooked" and began pursuing acting as a career. Success came slowly, and she began her career with small roles in various movies and shows, including the film State's Evidence, a short role in the prelude to the movie 2 Fast 2 Furious and a recurring-guest role on the TV program What I Like About You. In the spring she was cast as Lyla Garrity on the show Friday Night Lights. In preparation for the role, she trained with the Pflugerville High School cheeleading squad. Minka Kelly has recieved praise for her acting on Friday Night Lights, with the New York Times calling her performance "heartbreaking".

She recently finished shooting Universal's The Kingdom, in a small cameo role alongside Jamie Foxx and Chris Cooper. Peter Berg, the same director from Friday Night Lights, directed the film.