Today's Out Spotlight is an American fashion consultant and media personality best known for his role as co-host on What Not to Wear and his recent show, the cooking/lifestyle daytime show, The Chew. Starting his career as a freelance writer for several fashion magazines, he still continues to write, and has since expanded into fashion consulting and designing. Today's Out Spotlight is Clinton Kelly.
Clinton Kelly was born in Panama City, Panama February 22, 1969, , and raised in Port Jefferson Station, Long Island, New York. He graduated from Comsewogue High School in 1987 and went on to Boston College where he graduated with a degree in communications in 1991. A talent many fans might not know is Kelly is skilled singer and served as president of Boston College's University Chorale. After college, he attained his master's degree in journalism, specializing in magazine publishing, from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in 1993.
Before joining the style makeover show What Not to Wear as co-host, Kelly hosted a program on Q2 (part of QVC) and worked as a freelance writer and editor at several publications in New York. High fashion was no stranger to Kelly, he was an editor at Marie Claire and a deputy editor at Mademoiselle, where he contributed under the pseudonym "Joe L'Amour". He later became the executive editor of the Daily News Record, a New York-based weekly men's fashion and retail trade magazine.
While he was at Daily News Record, the producers at TLC's What Not to Wear decided to recast the original male lead and approached Kelly. After three auditions, he was chosen as the new co-host, alongside Stacy London. Kelly has described their relationship as "a brother and sister in the backseat of a car on a long car trip".
Kelly is out, but in comparing What Not to Wear with the show Queer Eye—which pioneered gay men making over people seen as needing fashion advice—the Washington Blade noted some key differences: "[U]nless you have your gaydar on while watching the show, you would have no idea. There's nothing 'gay' about the show and he doesn't really talk about it on air. Viewers trust Kelly's expertise based on the strength of his choices rather than on the 'he's gay and he should know' fashion theory."
In 2008, he served as a guest consultant on the TLC reality series, Miss America: Countdown to the Crown and assisted Mario Lopez during the live pageant telecast. Kelly was picked to become a co-host of the ABC daytime food/entertainment show The Chew in 2011.
In 2005, Kelly and his co-star London co-wrote "Dress Your Best: The Complete Guide to Finding the Style That's Right for Your Body." In 2008, he penned "Freakin' Fabulous: How to Dress, Speak, Behave, Eat, Drink, Entertain, Decorate, and Generally be Better than Everyone Else" and in 2010, he wrote "Oh No She Didn't, telling the do's and don'ts of women's fashion."
In 2007, Kelly wrote a weekly style column for "RedEye" in The Chicago Tribune.
He has appeared on The Today Show, ABC's Nightline, The CBS Early Show, and The Tyra Banks Show, among others. He has either written for or been interviewed by InStyle, Real Simple, O, Men's Health, Redbook, The New York Times, and The Chicago Tribune, among others. Private clients have included Price Waterhouse Coopers and AARP.
He has enjoyed a partnership with Macy's since 2005, appearing in high-profile, national television commercials and conducting style seminars in every major city across the United States.
In 2008 Clinton launched a successful line of women's casual wear in conjunction with QVC: Clinton Kelly for Denim and Company. In July 2008, his Extended Tab 5 Trousers sold out in seven seconds.
Kelly is married to Damon Bayles. They were married in 2009 at their home in Connecticut.
