How ‘Ice Road Truckers’ Star Lisa Kelly Turned a Pizza Delivery Gig Into Her Dream Career (EXCLUSIVE)
The fearless driver reveals how a pizza job sparked her ice road career—and how she decompresses from the stress of driving
Since Ice Road Truckers first premiered back in 2007, star Lisa Kelly has been proving she has what it takes to roll with the boys. While her thick skin and ability to work well under pressure have made her time in the trucking industry as long and successful as it’s been, her skills as a truck driver have given her the reputation she has—and fully deserves.
After Ice Road Truckers wrapped its run in 2017, fans had to wait until this past October to see Lisa Kelly and some of her fellow drivers back in action for Season 12—this time, facing more on-the-road challenges courtesy of Mother Nature. Woman’s World caught up with Lisa to discuss her career journey, how she manages the pressures of high-stress driving, and what it’s like to return to the screen.
Lisa Kelly started her career delivering pizzas
When you’ve seen the icy roads that Lisa Kelly drives her truck on, it’s hard to imagine there was ever a time when she wasn’t a pro, but growing up in Alaska, it was something the television personality kind of fell into. With two parents in the medical field, Kelly knew that wasn’t her journey, but when she began working for a pizzeria, she didn’t anticipate it leading to where she’s at today.
“Working jobs as a teenager—you go into a building, you work all day or you file papers—you find out what you don’t like real fast,” she began. “I started delivering pizza because you can make more money on tips, the pay seemed good, and I really liked getting in my car and driving around town and seeing what’s going on in the world, and getting out of the building, out from under direct management.”
Though her job delivering pizzas didn’t exactly take her far and wide, it definitely opened her eyes up to the possibilities of what her future could hold. Soon enough, the thought crossed her mind that maybe truck driving could be for her. “I liked it, fell in love with it, and decided to keep doing it. I started driving a school bus to get my [Commercial Driver’s License] CDL, the first step of it, the training.” She continued, “It wasn’t a truck, but it was the next step up.” By 23, she got her commercial license and began driving the trucks we see her taking control of on television.
How Lisa Kelly handles the stress of being a truck driver
So far this season, we’ve watched as Lisa’s dealt with the heat in her truck going out, her engine being torn apart and even a fire—so how exactly does she decompress from the stress of such an intense job? “I’m still trying to figure that one out,” she revealed. However, for this truck driver, she balances out the tense nature of her job in a unique way. “I have kind of extreme hobbies, and I think that’s kind of my way of dealing with an extreme job. It’s like, when you do something extreme, like motocross or something like that, you cannot think about your problems, because you have to think about what you’re doing or you’re gonna crash and get hurt. And I love horses, and they’re a challenge, so they’re a good de-stressor, too.”
What coming back to ‘Ice Road Truckers’ means to Lisa Kelly
Even though Ice Road Truckers last stopped filming in 2017, the series was never actually cancelled—it was just, well, put on ice. So when Lisa heard that the show was returning, she was thrilled. “I was half like, ‘It’s about time!,’ and then it was like, how cool is that, that a show can go off air for eight or nine years and then make a comeback like that? That is so cool! And it really didn’t hit me that I was doing it again until a couple weeks into shooting and the memories coming back.”
She continued, “It’s so cool that almost 20 years later, I’m still doing TV, and I thought I was going to have my 15 minutes of fame, and it is now my longest-running job I’ve held.”
Catch Lisa Kelly on new episodes of Ice Road Truckers, airing Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m. ET/8:30 p.m. CT on the History Channel.
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