Hi! I’m Kelly.

I am a Peabody Award-winning producer and writer with book smarts, feelings smarts, and a radical political agenda.

My work explores the ways political and aesthetic structures affect our everyday experiences of embodiment, care, and connection. I started my career as an Assistant Professor of Performance Studies at Arizona State University, where I taught and wrote about feminism and experimental performance. These days, I take the things I learned as a researcher, educator, and art-maker and integrate them into pop culture. Basically, I make things like TV shows and live performances a little sharper, a little weirder, and a little more compassionate.   

My most recent project, the HBO documentary 1000% Me: Growing Up Mixed, screened at DOC NYC Selects and the San Francisco International Film Festival and is now streaming on MAX. Other recent credits include the Showtime docu-series, We Need To Talk About Cosby, which premiered at Sundance in 2022 and the Emmy-winning CNN docu-series United Shades of America. I currently serve as VP of Production for W. Kamau Bell’s Oakland-based company, Who Knows Best Productions.

I have a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley and I graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. from Tulane University. I care a lot about dismantling white supremacy and making the world safer for bodies of all sizes, genders, and sexualities. I also like strength sports and convincing loved ones to watch my favorite TV shows. Have you seen Couples Therapy yet?!

Original Illustrations by Kiki Burghardt