Kelly Strandemo was born in Greenville, South Carolina and spent the majority of her childhood living about 5 miles off Exit 48A of Interstate -85. By the age of six, she had well traversed the stretch of said interstate between Atlanta, GA and Charlotte, NC as she often accompanied her mother, Dianne, on extended business trips. Kelly has loved traveling ever since. Along with Mom; Dad (Art) and Grandmother (Helen C.) encouraged Kelly to try many different things growing up...and she did. Be it soccer or basketball, gymnastics or baton lessons, handbell choir or swim team...Kelly tried it all. However, she abandoned most practice sessions in favor of playing outside, reading a book, or making up wild and interesting stories in her room. The one thing that Kelly did consistently throughout her childhood was sing and solo with church and school choirs. 

Kelly appeared in her first play, "Magic Theatre" with (what was) the "Greenville Youth Theatre" during her freshman year of high school and she hasn't looked back. After four productions with the youth theatre and then subsequently many others with their great big brother - the Greenville Little Theatre- Kelly moved from one SC (South Carolina) to another (Southern California) to attend Orange County High School of the Arts. Kelly graduated from OCHSA in the top 10% of her class. 

After a gap year, (during which she attended CAP21 in NYC), Kelly was accepted into the BFA Acting/Music Theatre program at Northern Kentucky University. So, it was off to the great metropolis of Cincinnati for a few fast years. During her KY stint, Kelly performed a lot of fun roles at a lot of fun theatres (see RESUME), began a writing partnership with the up-and-coming composer Jamey Strawn, helped form a puppetry troupe, and became the godmother of Andrew Peter. Kelly gratefully received many talent and academic awards, was a Dean’s Scholar, and graduated Summa Cum Laude from NKU.

After graduation, Kelly returned to New York City. According to her driver’s license she is now a bone-fide New Yorker, despite the fact that she still uses words such as “bone-fide.” She remains very close with her family- who still live in the house off Exit 48A. Kelly now resides in the awesome neighborhood of Park Slope, Brooklyn. She thoroughly enjoys ice cream, English Literature, live music, sipping good coffee with good friends (al fresco, of course),  baking and decorating incredibly tasty cakes, and spending time with as many puppy dogs as she possibly can.