Kelly Preston was born and raised in Hawaii. As a result of her father’s position with an agricultural firm, Kelly moved to Iraq when she was five years old and also lived several years in Australia as a teenager. Moving back to Hawaii, Kelly appeared in numerous television commercials and developed an interest in an acting career. Kelly graduated from Punahou High School in Hawaii along with fellow alumni, President Barack Obama.
A talented and captivating performer, Kelly first garnered international attention with her role as “Marnie Mason” in Ivan Reitman’s Twins (1988), starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito. With her diverse character portrayals in films, such as director Cameron Crowe’s Jerry Maguire (1996); Citizen Ruth (1996) for Alexander Payne; and For Love of the Game (1999), directed by Sam Raimi, she has continued to capture audience attention.
In the early part of her career, Kelly worked with notable director John Frankenheimer in the Elmore Leonard film, 52 Pick-Up (1986), alongside Roy Scheider and Ann-Margret.
Kelly’s career cast her beside some of Hollywood’s most notable names, including Kevin Spacey in Casino Jack (2010); Quentin Tarantino, George Clooney, and Harvey Keitel in Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk Till Dawn (1996); Kevin Bacon in Death Sentence (2007); Meg Ryan and Matthew Broderick in Addicted to Love (1997); Debra Winger, Zooey Deschanel, and Hank Azaria in Eulogy (2004); Mike Myers in The Cat in the Hat (2003); and Rod Steiger and Julie Harris in the Academy Award-nominated short, Little Surprises (1996).
Kelly was also actively involved in education, drug reform and many different charitable organizations. As a result of her work, she was acknowledged with numerous awards and recognitions.
Kelly met John Travolta while making the film “The Experts” and they were married in a quiet and romantic wedding in Paris, France in 1991. Together they had three beautiful children, Jett, Ella Bleu and Benjamin.