Kelly was born in New York, the youngest of a set of triplets born prematurely and all later diagnosed with cerebral palsy.[8] His mother, Vicki Stein, was Ashkenazi Jewish, and his father is the son of Irish immigrants.[9] In addition to his identical triplet Sean and fraternal triplet Paul, Kelly has a younger brother named Brendan. When Kelly was six years old, Paul died in his sleep, which led him and Sean to start a disability awareness program in their school and served as motivation to write music. Kelly and his family moved to Charleston, SC when they were teenagers.[10] Dom received a bachelor's degree in music production and a master's degree in journalism from Full Sail University, a graduate certificate in interdisciplinary disability studies from the University of Maine, and a master's degree in nonprofit leadership from the University of Pennsylvania where he also won the Excellence in Social Impact award. Kelly is also pursuing a Doctor of Public Health at George Washington University.[11] He currently resides in College Park, Georgia with his wife and young daughter.[12]
In October 2016, A Fragile Tomorrow announced they had been nominated for an Independent Music Award for their version of their cousin Richard Fariña's song "One Way Ticket" featuring Joan Baez[17] and Indigo Girls. On November 12, they announced on social media that they had won the award for Best Cover Song.[18] The band also announced that they had received 5 Grammy pre-nominations in various categories for Make Me Over.[19]
After working for Stacey Abrams at Fair Fight Action, Kelly served as founding staff and Senior Advisor to Abrams on her 2022 run for Georgia governor. The campaign was noted for having a full department dedicated to disabled voters, as well the first political campaign to hire full time American Sign Language interpreters.[23]
New Disabled South and later
In May 2022, Kelly founded New Disabled South[24], the first and only regional disability organization in the United States.[25] The organization follows the ten principles of disability justice, which were developed by the disabled queer and BIPOC members of Sins Invalid, and works to ensure disability justice is a part of every social justice movement in the U.S. South.[26] The organization, as well its advocacy arm New Disabled South Rising, has supported the work of the Stop Cop City movement based in Atlanta, Georgia.[27]
In 2023, Kelly told Waging Nonviolence that in regards to disabled people, the U.S. government would "rather throw people away than invest in giving them full lives and autonomy."[28]
During the 2024 United States presidential election between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, Kelly criticized both candidates' records on disability, telling NPR "But I can't think of one political campaign that has done really phenomenal work around the disability community. And for the vast majority of political campaigns in the history of this country, they often do not have any meaningful outreach to the disability community, and we're not thought of as a powerful voting bloc."[30]
In early 2025, following President Trump's remarks that the 2025 Potomac River mid-air collision was caused by DEI and the hiring of disabled people at the Federal Aviation Administration,[31] Kelly appeared live on the UK's Sky News, saying, "This is par for the course for a man who has spent his life denigrating and devaluing people who deems to be less than him," and adding, "Donald Trump is a prime example of a mediocre man who, because of his immense wealth and privilege, has failed upwards his entire life. He wouldn't know what it's like to be excluded from a job because of a disability or to be legally paid pennies per hour."[32]
In a 2025 opinion piece for Mondoweiss, Kelly called out worldwide disability rights leaders for their "silence" and "complicity" on the Gaza war, writing, "Stopping this U.S.-funded genocide in Gaza is the disability issue of our time."[33]
In August 2025, Kelly authored a Teen Vogue article criticizing the U.S. government for funding Israel during the Gaza war, claiming that it led to Palestinians starving and arguing that starvation as policy has been "woven into the fabric of this country since its inception."[34]
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