Kelly Preston was born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1962 to a mental health center administrator and an agricultural farm worker. Kelly’s father drowned when she was three years old. Until his death, Kelly had spent her early years in Iraq and Australia, due to his work. She attended high school back in Hawaii and later studied drama and theater at the University of Southern California.

As a teenager, Kelly started modeling and at 16 was discovered by a fashion photographer and got work in commercials. In 1983, she appeared in 10 to Midnight, her first major film role. She went on to appear in a dozen more films in the 1980’s, including SpaceCamp and Twins. In the 1990’s, she appeared in Only You, Waiting to Exhale, Jerry Maguire, For the Love of the Game, as well as seventeen others.

Kelly Preston has dated actors George Clooney and Charlie Sheen. After co-habiting with Sheen for over a year the relantionship broke down when Sheen accidently shot her in the arm. Preston was also married to actor Kevin Gage in the mid 80's. In 1991, Preston married John Travolta and they have two children together – Jett, born in 1993 and Ella, born in 2000. She and Travolta are both Scientologists and appeared in the L. Ron Hubbard-based film, Battlefield Earth in 2000. She has continued to have an active movie career since, appearing in such films as Sky High, View from the Top, and Death Sentence.

Preston is a spokesperson for Neutrogena and has appeared in the Maroon 5 music video, “She Will Be Loved” as the love interest to the Maroon 5's lead singer Adam Levine. In addition, she is an advocate for overmedication and children, citing that schools are forcing students and families to medicate for ADD unnecessarily. Preston also devotes much time as a board member of the Children’s Health Environmental Coalition, an organization dedicated to educating parents about environmental toxins.