Kelly Lim Harris (SGCNZ NSSP 2012, SGCNZ YSC 2013)

Kelly Lim Harris is a New Zealand singer and actress renowned for her captivating stage presence, pearlescent vocals, and remarkable versatility. Classically trained but seduced by show business, Kelly will spend 2025 studying in the world-renowned Musical Theatre programme at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) before furthering her career across the Asia-Pacific region.

Kelly has been a lead performer on 17 national tours across more than 22 cities and towns in New Zealand. Her international engagements have taken her to destinations including France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Japan, Bali, and Australia. She has collaborated with leading arts organisations, with highlights including voicing the character ‘Eel’ in Hana the Glowworm for the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and performing and creating for New Zealand Opera’s Voices of Aotearoa.

Kelly received the Sam Wanamaker Award for Most Promising Actor at the SGCNZ National Shakespeare Festival, which led to her performance as Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at London’s Globe Theatre. She also played Don John in Much Ado About Nothing at Auckland’s Pop-Up Globe and has been involved with Proudly Asian Theatre, as well as various screen and voiceover projects.

Academically, Kelly holds a Bachelor of Music in Classical Voice Performance and a Bachelor of Arts in European Studies from the University of Auckland. She was the recipient of several scholarships, including the University of Auckland Scholarship, the Evelyn M. Harrison Scholarship, and the Palazzo Italia Scholarship, which enabled her to study in Venice, Italy. Among the highlights of her time at university were performing the title role in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges, singing as a soloist with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra as an APO Young Achiever, and performing in the exhibition Lee Mingwei and His Relations at the Auckland Art Gallery.