Originally from Cuyahoga County, Ohio,[1][2] Kelly in 1994 graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Miami University with a BA in history and political science.

[4] Kelly is an associate professor of international relations in the Department of Political Science and Diplomacy at Pusan National University in Busan, South Korea.

[7] He has made media appearances on the BBC World News, China Central Television[6] and Al Jazeera[8] and has written for several publications including The Diplomat [6] and Foreign Affairs.

[12] On March 10, 2017, he and his family rose to fame when his live interview by James Menendez on the impeachment of Park Geun-hye, the President of South Korea, for the BBC World News from his home office was sequentially gatecrashed by his four-year-old daughter and nine-month-old son entering the room, then his wife, Jung-a Kim,[13] sliding in to drag them out while knocking books off an air-mattress, before closing the door on her knees.

"[22] Kelly's fame arising from the viral video led to his appearance on a South Korean reality television show that focuses on the struggles of fathers raising young children.