Minka Kelly Biography

Minka Kelly played cheerleader Lyla Garrity in the first four seasons of the television series Friday Night Lights, and her career got a boost in 2010 when Esquire magazine named her “Sexiest Woman Alive.”

Minka Kelly worked as a surgical assistant while trying to break into show business, and she first began getting guest spots on television in 2004. The success of Friday Night Lights opened doors, and Kelly began getting work in films as well, most notably a small role in 2007’s The Kingdom, a small (but significant) role at the end of the 2009 romantic comedy (500) Days of Summer (starring Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and a co-starring role in the 2010 thriller The Roommate (with Leighton Meester). She played former First Lady Jackie Kennedy in The Butler (2013) and had a supporting role in the 2015 biopic Papa Hemingway in Cuba.

The New York Post announced in early 2010 that Minka Kelly was engaged to baseball star Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees. However, the couple split up in 2011, and Jeter later married model Hannah Davis.