ARTIST BIO

Young New Zealand entertainer Kelly Lim Harris is known for her captivating stage presence, pearlescent vocals, and remarkable versatility. Classically trained but seduced by contemporary music, you’ll find Kelly dazzling audiences with crystal clear classical arias, belting brassy show tunes, channelling pop-divas - and even indulging audiences with a little dancing.

Kelly is a veteran of life of the road with 15 national tours under her belt spanning 300+ performances. Kelly is also lucky enough to regularly host and perform on luxury musical travel tours and festivals, where audiences get to experience exceptional destinations with their favourite artists. In 2023-2024 Kelly will travel to and perform in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Japan, Australia, Bali and the Chatham Islands.

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Between tours in 2023, Kelly was delighted to begin work as the voice of ‘Eel’ for a new musical - Hana the Glowworm, a collaboration between the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and Angel Star Publishing. The first song to be released, ‘World of Wonderful’, is available on streaming platforms.

In 2022 she was a member of the New Zealand Opera Chorus performing in their production of Macbeth. In 2021 she was selected as a singer for New Zealand Opera’s 6.24 Voices of Aotearoa new opera development project and performed the role of Ada Wells in rock musical That Bloody Woman with Auckland Music Theatre. During the 2020 pandemic lockdown live performing came to halt, but Kelly was featured on the TV3 6pm National News for her role as a presenter and performer in online concerts, amassing over 200,000 views.

An accomplished actress as well as singer, Kelly won the Sam Wanamaker award for Most Promising Actor at the SGCNZ National Shakespeare Festival and subsequently was invited to perform as Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Globe Theatre in London as part of the SGCNZ Young Shakespeare Company. Kelly stepped once more onto the Shakespearean stage performing as Don John in Much Ado About Nothing at the Pop-Up Globe. She has also performed with Proudly Asian Theatre, worked on screen projects, and as a voiceover artist.

Kelly holds a Bachelor of Music and Arts in Classical Voice Performance and European Studies from the University of Auckland where she was a recipient of the prestigious University of Auckland Scholarship, Evelyn M Harrison Scholarship, and Palazzo Italia Scholarship funding her studies in Venice, Italy. Highlights of her time at university include performing the title role in Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges, spending a summer at the Auckland Art Gallery giving patrons 'The Gift of Song’ as part of the exhibition Lee Mingwei and His Relations, and performing as a soloist with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra as an APO Young Achiever. 

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Committed to connecting with a diverse audience Kelly held several prominent positions as a young arts influencer during her studies, including Auckland Student Ambassador for the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Coordinator of the Young Friends of New Zealand Opera, and President of the School of Music Student’s Association.