 She attended St Joseph of Cluny's primary school and Newtown School in Waterford for her secondary education before spending time delved in theatre studies at Trinity College, Dublin.Before obtaining a position in RTÉ, Kelly volunteered for a place at Dublin South Community Radio and received in return a weekly half-hour arts programme to present.She began working with state broadcaster RTÉ in 1994, working on 2FM where her first national broadcast took place from on top of the world's biggest, fastest roller coaster.