Originally from the badlands of North Dakota, where the music from Willie, Waylon and The Boys were blasting out of the 8-track stereo in the family’s automotive shop, Kelly is an EMMY-nominated cinematographer and critically-acclaimed filmmaker who is widely-recognized for his stylistic visuals and grounded storytelling within music and sports; ranging from a multi-season international music series to network sports programming

In 2003, Kelly left film school (Denver) to pursue his dream in the arts, supporting himself as a barista alongside a struggling musician (Isaac Slade) whose fledgling band, The Fray, was working to get traction. Needless to say, they did; and during this time Kelly and Isaac partnered to launch Filament Productions. A Denver-based production house, Filament developed and launched the National Geographic International television series MUSIC VOYAGER (Kelly directed and produced three seasons), created numerous advertising campaigns for international outdoor brands and produced documentaries for a number of major label recording artists. In 2013, Kelly was nominated for an EMMY for his cinematography on the NBC Ironman World Championships special.

Introduced by their mutual friend Isaac, Kelly and Eric met at baggage carousel number six at the San Diego airport in 2011 and began their almost decade long partnership with the award-winning feature documentary DAVE; and rapidly scaled production of a slate of premiere non-fiction projects in music and sports.

More than a sports enthusiast and storyteller, Kelly is also a professional athlete --- a former National Champion mountain bike racer, that was ranked number two in the world - which was just training for chasing his twin six year old boys around a backyard in Denver, where he and his well-known investigative journalist wife, Rachel, call home.