Kelly Richardson grew up in Berkeley, California competing in gymnastics and performing in regional theater and dance shows. During high school, she rowed crew, ran track, and worked at a Scuba shop, where she became certified as a Rescue Diver and Divemaster. During breaks, she worked on scuba boats off Santa Barbara, and later, in Turks and Caicos Islands. Kelly majored in Spanish at UC Berkeley, and minored in Theater, with an additional emphasis in Dance. She also competed for the UC Berkeley Triathlon Team, trained and performed at The Ailey School for dance in New York City, and over several winters, worked as a Ski and Snowboard instructor in Tahoe. After college, she moved to Brazil and joined a circus, where she performed as an aerialist and acrobat, and as the sole non-Brazilian performer under the tent. There, she became fluent in Portuguese. The inspiration for her film, WITHOUT A NET, came from her experience with an outreach program offered to children and teenagers living in the slums in the vicinity of the circus, and she was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to produce it. The film screened in the Mill Valley Film Festival, Raindance in London, and the Human Rights Festival in Buenos Aires, and won several awards, including Audience Awards at the Red Rock Film Festival and Atlanta Film Festival and Best Documentary of the Santa Monica Film Festival. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Jack Gardner
