Rod Kelly was born in Reading in 1956 and trained at Birmingham Polytechnic and at the Royal College of Art under Professor Gerald Benney. In 1983 he was awarded first prize in the Goddards Silver Awards and on leaving the Royal College was given his first major commission by the Goldsmiths' Company of which he is now a Freeman. He is also a member of the Goldsmiths' Craft Council.

Along with a wide variety of privately commissioned designs, many of his major commissions have been presentation pieces. The Victoria and Albert Museum commissioned him to design and make a rose bowl for HM The Queen Mother, the Merchant Taylors' Company commissioned a bowl for the Princess of Wales and De Beers a large plate set with diamonds and inlaid with fine gold for the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes. In 1990 he made a wine cooler for the Rt. Hon. Sir Edward Heath to commemorate his forty years as a Member of Parliament. That same year he was given his first ecclesiastical commission, a large alms dish for Lichfield Cathedral and a decorative centrepiece for Green College, Oxford.

In 1995 Rod Kelly was commissioned to design and make the processional cross for the Grosvenor Chapel, Mayfair. Recent commissions include a lavabo bowl for New College, Oxford, an alms dish for St Ann's Church, Portsmouth Naval Base and a presentation piece for HRH The Prince of Wales given by the British Film Institute.

In early 1999 he was commissioned by Royal Mail to design and produce an image for a first-class stamp to celebrate the Millennium.