Soaps

Kelly Neelan’s tough journey on Coronation Street: From debut to family tragedy

Actress Millie joined the Corrie cast in 2019

Kelly Neelan made her first Coronation Street appearance back in 2019.

Although she has only been on the show for three years, she has been at the centre of many tough storylines.

But who is Kelly, who are her family and who plays the character?

Kelly Neelan is weary after Laura's funeral in Corrie
Kelly is the daughter of Rick and Laura Neelan (Credit: ITV)

Read more: Coronation Street in 2022: Who’s leaving and who’s joining Weatherfield?

Who is Kelly Neelan in Coronation Street?

Kelly is the daughter of Rick Neelan and Laura Neelan.

She was born on May 22nd 2005, making her 17 years old.

However both of Kelly’s parents have died.

Loan shark Rick was killed in 2019 by Gary Windass and earlier this year, Laura died after a battle with stomach cancer.

Kelly currently lives with Gary, his wife Maria and Maria’s son Liam. However Kelly has no idea Gary killed her dad.

The teenager believes her mother killed Rick, but Laura took the blame for Gary, wanting him to be there for Kelly when she died.

Kelly first appeared when she was looking for her dad shortly after he disappeared (Credit: ITV)

When did Kelly first appear?

Kelly made her first appearance on June 28 2019.

She first appeared after Rick disappeared.

When she found Gary in her dad’s office, she demanded Gary tell her where her dad was.

But he told her that her dad was a loan shark and went on the run.

Gary thought he got her off his case, but Kelly later turned up on the cobbles again in April 2020 when it was revealed she transferred to Weatherfield High school.

After Rick’s disappearance Kelly lived with her mum Laura full time. But in 2020 it was revealed that Kelly didn’t have a great relationship her mum.

Laura ended up leaving Kelly by herself. Kelly had made friends with Summer Spellman and her godfather, Billy, offered for Kelly to stay with them till her mum came back.

Later Laura came back for Kelly, however it was revealed that Laura had gone off again and Kelly was taken into foster care.

Kelly was then fostered by Imran Habeeb and Toyah Battersby.

Gary Windass murdered Rick Neelan in Coronation Street (Credit: ITV)
Gary killed Rick (Credit: ITV)

Why did Kelly go to prison?

In May 2021, Corey Brent, Kelly Neelan, Summer Spellman and some of their friends were hanging out by a wasteland when Seb Franklin and Nina Lucas walked by.

They boys began making fun of Nina for her goth look, leaving Summer feeling terrible.

She left but Kelly stayed behind. The group began egging Kelly on to slap Nina.

Kelly slapped Nina and the group soon began chasing Seb and Nina, yelling abuse at the couple.

Some of the boys beat up Nina and Corey attacked Seb.

Kelly tried to stop Corey and after the attack, everyone ran off. Kelly debated trying to call for help, but she didn’t.

Seb managed to get to a phone and call the emergency services.

Nina needed surgery on her brain and Seb sadly died from his injuries.

Kelly was arrested and charged with the murder of Seb.

In court, she tried to argue that it was Corey, but she found guilty and he wasn’t.

Eventually evidence was found proving that Corey did kill Seb and he was sent to prison.

Stu tried to help Kelly on the streets (Credit: ITV)

Kelly’s life on the streets

Kelly was released, but as Toyah and Imran had another foster child, Elsie, Kelly couldn’t stay with them.

She went into an assisted accommodation, but after getting on the bad side of one of the other residents, she lived on the street.

She ended up meeting another homeless man, Stu Carpenter, who actually played a part in finding evidence that Corey killed Seb.

When Nina found a drugged up Kelly being attacked by a group of teens in a park, she stepped in to help her.

Afterwards Kelly went to live with Gary and Maria.

Seb’s mum Abi struggled to forgive Kelly for her involvement in Seb’s murder.

However as time passed, she agreed they could both live on the street and keep out of each other’s way.

But when Kelly was struggling after the death of her mum, Abi stepped in to try and keep her from doing drugs.

Corrie Kieron gives Kelly her phone to text Gary
 Kelly was kidnapped by Kieron (Credit: ITV)

Kelly’s kidnap

After Kelly found out her dad was dead, Gary discovered money that Rick had left behind.

Knowing her dad ripped people off, she wanted to return some money to the people her dad had taken from.

However last week, Kelly returned money to a man named Ross.

She was later kidnapped and it’s revealed in spoilers for this week that Ross and a man named Kieron are keeping her in a dark cellar.

Kieron rings Gary and demands £50k, or Kelly will be killed.

Gary meets them with just under half of the amount, but puts a tracker in the money bag.

He eventually finds Kelly and tries to free her, but when Kieron comes in with a crowbar.

Kelly is shocked to see the lengths Gary will go to to survive?

Will she piece together what really happened to her dad?

Millie won Best Young Performer at the British Soap Awards 2022 (Credit: SplashNews.com)

Coronation Street: Who plays Kelly Neelan?

Kelly is played by actress Millie Gibson. Her full name is Amelia Eve Gibson, but she goes by Millie.

Millie’s full name was revealed on her Instagram story when her brother Morgan gifted her what appeared to be a personalised photo album.

Millie shared a picture of the personalised book which said: “Amelia Eve Gibson” alongside her date of birth.

Her birthday is June 19 2004 and the actress just celebrated her 18th birthday.

At the British Soap Awards 2022 Millie won the award for Best Young Performer.

What have you seen Millie Gibson in?

Before landing the role of Kelly in Coronation Street, Millie played Mia in Love, Lies and Records in 2017.

She then played Indira in TV series Jamie Johnson from 2017 until 2018.

In 2018, she then played Lily Duffy in TV mini-series Butterfly alongside Emmett J Scanlan, Anna Friel and Callum Booth-Ford.

Poster

Read more: Who is in the cast of Coronation Street 2022? Meet the full line-up 

Coronation Street usually airs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8pm on ITV.

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Charlotte Rodrigues
Soap Contributor
Charlotte Rodrigues joined Entertainment Daily in April 2018, as Audience Engagement Executive. A huge soap fan, Charlotte then became Senior Soap Writer, delivering the latest storylines and spoilers to our followers.