The captivating dark-haired Kelly made her professional debut playing a young woman manipulated into killing her stepmother in the TV movie, "Love, Lies and Murder" (1991). The same year, she made her first feature appearance in "The Boy Who Cried Bitch" and gained attention for her brief performance as the title character's neighborhood girlfriend, a teen prostitute and orphan, in "Billy Bathgate" (both 1991). In 1992, Kelly played her first leading role as an Olympic ice-skating diva in the romantic drama "The Cutting Edge". That same year, she played the dual roles of Hetty Kelly and Oona O'Neill in Richard Attenborough's hefty biopic "Chaplin". As the voice of Nala in Disney's blockbuster "The Lion King" (1994), Kelly earned new fans among the toddler set. The tots' older siblings were more apt to have seen her subsequent performances in the sub-par comedy "With Honors" and the intriguing "Little Odessa" or "The Tie That Binds" (all 1995). Kelly then went on to become a regular, named Annie Cornell, on the TV series "To Have & To Hold" (1998-1999). She was cast as Cynthia in the film "Henry Hill" the following year (1999). Kelly was also cast as a regular character, Madeline Hampton, in the very popular TV series The West Wing (1999-2000).