Classic porn star Angel Kelly was born in Memphis, but grew up in Lansing, Michigan and made her porn debut in 1985 when she was 23 years old. She went on to work in the biz for 6 years before retiring in 1991 with more than 100 original films to her credit. May websites credit Kelly with more than 200 films, but many of those are compilations containing her original work. Along with Jeannie Pepper and Heather Hunter, Kelly is one of the first African American women to have a successful mainstream porn career. The majority of her film performances were from 1986-1988, with 53 in 1987 alone. By the early 90s, however, Kelly was appearing in fewer than 5 films a year. Her final performance in an original film was in 1993.
Over the course of her career, Kelly performed in a few different niches, including hardcore, interracial, facial scenes, and lesbian content. She worked with many of the industry's most well known production companies of the time, such as Fantasy Home Video, Wet Video, Infinity Film And Video, Western Visuals, and many others. Notable films for Kelly include Angel Kelly X-posed (Infinity Film And Video), Black Girls Do It Better (LA Video), Where There's Smoke There's Fire (Fantasy Home Video), a lesbian performance in Taste of Angela (Pink Video), and Sins of the Wealthy 2 (Classic Editions Video).
Beside her impressive acting career, Kelly made her directorial debut in 1990. She tried her hand at producing films from 1990-1991, directing 2 films for Soho Video. Directorial projects include Even More Dangerous, a film Kelly also starred in, and Lesbian Liasons.
Although Kelly retired from the adult entertainment industry, she remained working in entertainment. She currently lives in Memphis, Tennessee, where she raised her children and is working on an autobiography. She is also working as a music manager and promoter.
2005 Inducted into the Legends of Erotica Hall of Fame
2008 Inducted into the Adult Video News Hall of Fame
2009 Inducted into the XRCO Hall of Fame
Inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame
