Minka Kelly's Real Name: Minka Kelly

Quick answer: Minka Kelly is publicly known by her birth name, Minka Kelly. She was born on June 24, 1980, in Los Angeles. Her mother was Maureen Kelly, and her father is former Aerosmith guitarist Rick Dufay. She is best known as Lyla Garrity on Friday Night Lights. Her 2023 memoir, Tell Me Everything, became a bestseller (Library of Congress; People).

Real name and early life

The Library of Congress name authority files her as "Kelly, Minka, 1980-," with the citation "Minka Kelly, actress ; born June 24, 1980 in Los Angeles, California, USA." She uses her mother's surname rather than her father's. Wikipedia lists a middle name, Dumont, but we did not find it in the other sources checked, so this page uses the name documented in library records.

People reports that her mother, Maureen, met Rick Dufay at a Los Angeles recording studio in 1979. He was about to go on tour and was not ready to be a full-time father, so Maureen raised Minka alone. Rolling Stone, quoting the audiobook of her memoir, says Kelly was three when she first met Dufay. He played with Aerosmith from 1981 to 1984 in place of guitarist Brad Whitford.

In Tell Me Everything she describes a "colorful and chaotic, unstable and inconsistent" childhood, as she put it to People. Her mother worked as a dancer and struggled with addiction. The two moved from Los Angeles to Albuquerque, where Kelly went to middle and high school. Her mother died of cancer in 2008, at 51. Kelly told People she wrote the book hoping that people with complicated relationships with their mothers would feel less alone.

Career highlights

After returning to Los Angeles, Kelly first stayed with Dufay. People says she worked as a scrub nurse while modeling and auditioning. Her big break came on NBC's Friday Night Lights (2006–09), where she played Lyla Garrity, a cheerleader in a small Texas town.

She then played Autumn in (500) Days of Summer (2009). She had recurring roles on NBC's Parenthood and starred in ABC's 2011 Charlie's Angels revival. She played Jacqueline Kennedy in Lee Daniels' The Butler (2013). From 2018 to 2021 she was Dawn Granger, also known as Dove, on the DC series Titans, and in 2022 she appeared on HBO's Euphoria. Wikipedia also credits her with a role in the Netflix western drama Ransom Canyon (2025–26).

Tell Me Everything was published in 2023, and she narrated the audiobook herself.

Name notes for searchers

Kelly is her mother's surname. She did not take Dufay, her father's stage surname. Searchers sometimes look for "Minka Dufay," but that is not a name she uses.