Originally from Pittsburgh, PA, Kiersten Kelly is a Los Angeles based singer-songwriter, model and actor. She is also part of the disability community, being born without her right forearm. The medical term for her disability is congenital trans-radial absence, but she uses the term limb difference and disability in her day-to-day life. Kiersten has always had a craving for music, starting singing lessons at a young age. While she was always interested in pop music, she began training in musical theater and classical music before shifting her focus as a pop vocalist. Soon after, she gained interest in playing guitar and went to Hanger Clinic to have a prosthesis created specifically for strumming. Around this time, Kiersten covered the ‘Cup Song’ from the movie “Pitch Perfect,” and 24 hours later, the video went viral and accumulated thousands of views on various platforms, and landed her interviews on local television networks and newspapers. The original video on her YouTube channel has over 718,000 views. Kiersten continued her studies at a performing arts high school, Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School, before accepting a City Music full-scholarship at Berklee College of Music based on her performance skills. At Berklee College of Music, Kiersten leaned into songwriting, finding her voice and putting her personal experiences and pain into words. She sang the National Anthem at Fenway Park on two occasions and performed at various venues in Boston, MA. Kiersten is unapologetically herself. She is outspoken and very passionate about disability awareness. She strives to educate as many people as she can about her disability and lack of disability representation in the industry. Kiersten hopes to be the role model she never had growing up because no one looked like her in magazines, TV shows, movies, music videos, etc. Aside from her confidence, Kiersten is charismatic and sassy. These defining characteristics contribute to her music and take over any room she enters. Her single ‘Gone’ was released in 2019 and received radio attention. Kiersten continued to work on her artist project and wrote with many established writers in Los Angeles, Nashville and New York. In 2021, Kiersten released two singles, ’Little Too Much’ and ‘Bad News.’ These songs feature her most vulnerable lyrics yet. Kiersten is very open and wants to share her life in her songs in hopes that it helps others. Kiersten is first and foremost a singer-songwriter but has always had other interests in the entertainment industry. After walking with Runway of Dreams at New York Fashion Week in 2019, she joined Zebedee Management’s roster as a model. Towards the end of 2020, Kiersten signed with KMR agency in Los Angeles to pursue her long-time interest in acting. While looking into casting calls, she noticed that many roles for actors with disabilities only focused on the disability. She decided to team up with a few other actors with disabilities to remake the Mean Girls ‘Four-Way Call’ scene to normalize disabilities on screen. The remake received a positive response and was picked up by the well-known social media-focused news organization, NowThis and has gained 2.2 million views. Since signing, Kiersten has worked on short films, music videos and other projects. Kiersten Kelly is nothing but a body of determination and continuously an element of surprise. While the entertainment industry is not accepting of creatives with disabilities, she will not take no for an answer.