| Kellie Shirley | |
| Birth Name: | Kelly Jane Shirley |
| Birth Date: | 1981 7, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Croydon, London, England |
| Years Active: | 2002–present |
| Spouse: | Phil Davies |
| Children: | 3[1] |
| Occupation: | Actress |
| Notable Works: | Kirsty in in the Long Run and Carly Wicks in EastEnders (2006–2008, 2012) |
Kelly Jane Shirley (born 11 July 1981),[2] known professionally as Kellie Shirley is an English actress who works in film, television, theatre, and radio. She hails from Croydon via a large Northern Irish family and started her career by training at The BRIT School. As well as acting, she has also co-presented programmes for BBC2 and Channel 5 and written all 6 episodes of Spirit Studios, podcast drama: ROAR available on Apple. As an actress, she is probably best known for her roles as Kirsty De La Croix in Sky One returning, comedy-series In the Long Run created by Idris Elba as well as the role of Carly Wicks in the BBC continuing drama EastEnders and as Kym in The Office Christmas Specials. She can currently be seen playing new series regular Sophia Peters, who is a psych liaison nurse in the drama series, Casualty.
Kellie’s recent Film work includes Bull directed by Paul Andrew Williams and Terence Davies' Benediction. She was selected by BAFTA to be part of their BAFTA Elevate cohort 2020/21 programme, supporting working-class talent and underrepresented groups progressing in their careers on screen.[3]
As well as acting, she has written a column for Closer Magazine and co-hosted the BBC Two show Something for the Weekend with Tim Lovejoy, standing in for Amanda Hamilton who was on maternity leave.[4]
In 2024, Shirley joined the cast of the BBC drama series Casualty, playing the role of psych liaison nurse Sophia Peters.[5]
Kellie has twins and gave birth to a son in March 2023. She has won 'celebrity fundraiser of the year' (twice) for raising awareness for Mums-to-be to consider donating their babies’ cord blood to the Anthony Nolan Charity to help save a stranger's life who has blood cancer.
In January 2019 she ran her third London Marathon this time with other former EastEnders actors for a Dementia campaign in honour of Barbara Windsor.[6]