Originally Elly trained as an actor, singer and theatre director and dramaturge.

She went on to perform extensively with most of Melbourne’s major and independent theatre companies and for television, film and radio.

Elly later moved into broadcasting for community radio as a theatre reviewer and popular culture commentator. Later she worked for a number of years as a freelance presenter and reporter for ABC  Melbourne and ABC Radio National.

Elly’s over-a-decade series of autobiographical monologues for ABC’s Life Matters program had a unique and profound impact, garnering a large and devoted public audience across Australia.

Elly signed with Penguin Books after contributing a personal essay to an anthology called How We Met followed by Penguin publishing Elly’s memoir This Is Not My Beautiful Life.

As a freelance writer and memoirist Elly has contributed to The Age, The Australian Women’s Weekly, Mamamia, Daily Life, The Australian, The Good Weekend and The Big Issue , The Guardian, and was a long-time columnist for the Australian Education Union monthly magazine.

A piece about first love was published in a collection She’s Having a Laugh with Affirm Press.

She was a theatre critic for The Melbourne Times and for The Age and co-ordinated and taught Professional Writing & Editing at Box Hill Institute. 

She taught creative writing at Deakin University and the University of Melbourne specialising in biography, autobiography and creative nonfiction.

Elly is currently writing a book of personal essays and a PhD based on her substantial collection of autobiographical monologues that she wrote and performed for ABC Radio National.