Female Driver Lisa Kelly Heats Up ‘Ice Road Truckers’

For two successful seasons, the History Channel’s “Ice Road Truckers” was dominated by long-bearded, pot-bellied tough guys like Hugh “The Polar Bear” Rowland, Alex Debogorski and George Spears.

Like producer Thom Beers’ other hit series, Discovery Channel’s “Deadliest Catch,” we tuned in to see these grizzled men put their lives on the line each week, in this case hauling giant loads across frozen lakes and ocean to remote mining outposts.

Watch full episodes of ‘Ice Road Truckers’

However, entering into season three this summer, we were in for a bit of a surprise with the addition of 28-year-old driver Lisa Kelly to the show.

Watching her navigate her big rig back and forth through the steep, winding, icy, windblown road leading from Fairbanks, Alaska to Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic coastline, where her husband of 10 months just so happens to work as a truck loader, you wonder if some other reality show – maybe “America’s Top Model,” or “Project Runway” – may be a better fit.

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Then you see that Kelly, who also dabbles in motocross, can really drive.

“She’s quite a find,” says producer Beers, noting that unlike her macho brethren on the show, Kelly’s frank honesty regarding the peril of driving the ice roads adds another dimension to the show.

“No truck driver dude would ever do that,” he says. “She actually makes the experience a lot more visceral.”

Fancast recently caught up with Kelly at her home in Wasilla, Alaska, on rare off day from danger.

So they call you the “Tomboy.” Do you love it? The word ‘tomboy’ would describe me to a “T.” I’ve only recently become girly because I have a husband.

You wear makeup on the show. Is that your idea or the producers? I call all the shots on that stuff. I don’t normally wear a lot of makeup, but geez, I’m on TV, I got to look purdy. But you’ll notice my makeup is all smeared and stuff. I’m not very good yet at putting it on.

You’re a rather attractive woman doing what is traditionally a male-dominated job on a hit TV show. Has Playboy reached out to you yet? No, not yet (laughs).

“Nobody’s chased me down and

ripped off my clothes for souvenirs yet,

but I do get recognized and noticed.”

Now, you live in the same town as soon-to-be former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Do you know her? Of course, I know who she is, but I don’t know her personally and I’ve never met her.

Seriously? How big could Wasilla be? It’s getting pretty big. It’s 40 miles north of Anchorage, and it’s the place for people who want to work in Anchorage but don’t want to live there.

How long have you lived in Alaska? I was born in Michigan, but I’ve lived here most of my life. This is where I grew up. This is home.

Has anyone approached you on the street and given you the celebrity treatment yet? Nobody’s chased me down and ripped off my clothes for souvenirs yet, but I do get recognized and noticed, which is pretty cool. I still feel like I haven’t woken up from a dream yet.

You’ve been married for 10 months. Are you guys looking to have kids soon? I always tell people I’m married with two cats and a pony on the way. My plans for starting a family have already started because we have animals, but that’s as far as it’s going (laughs).

So what do a trucker and a truck loader do a for a romantic evening, anyway? It’s called being in the same room, which is rare for us (laughs).

How does your husband feel about your trucking career? He’s a pretty quiet guy, he doesn’t say a whole lot, but he’s been pretty supportive.

So how did you get into trucking, anyway? I don’t know, I guess I started asking myself, what am I going to do for the rest of my life? And I said, hmm, trucking looks interesting. So I started working for Carlisle (an Alaskan trucking company) full time, hauling anything and everything to anywhere they want me to.

So you got called out of the blue to be on the show last year. Were you an “Ice Road Truckers” fan at the time? I don’t’ really have a TV. I just rent movies every once in a while. Usually, I’m pretty busy.

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So, when they called you, did you freak out because you have to drive that scary road? No, I’ve been up to Fairbanks before helping out during their busy months, so I’d driven it before.

What’s the scariest moment you’ve had driving on that road? The scariest moments come from all the storms we have up there. You have really low visibility, and you have to make a judgment call and decide whether you’re going to go for it or wait. And a lot of times it’s oops, I should have waited.

“Trust me, I have gained weight –

I guess I’m just joining the club.

But I do try to be careful about what I eat.”

What about the other truckers on the show? Do you hang out with them? It says in your bio that you used to date young Cody Hyce. The other truckers on the show are pretty cool, but no, we don’t really hang out with each other outside of work.

Being a female trucker, do you find that you catch a lot of flack? Let’s just put it this way whenever you do any kind of job that involves you doing something different, you’re going to get naysayers. But all the other drivers I’ve run into so far have been pretty good about it for the most part.

You work in a profession that’s noted for its high rate of obesity, but you seem pretty conscious on the show about what you eat. Trust me, I have gained weight – I guess I’m just joining the club. But I do try to be careful about what I eat. It’s a constant struggle. But I go to the gym every time I get up to Prudhoe Bay, and I’m always doing sit-ups in my sleeper cab. And I measure out all my food – I put it in a baggie and measure the calories so I’m not just mindlessly consuming. You’ll also see me chewing gum on the show. It keeps my brain busy and not thinking about chewing other things.

So when you’re not driving tons of freight down steep, icy grades, you do motocross to unwind. How’s that going? I used to do it a lot more in the past, but I’ve been focusing on my career the last few years, so I’m riding only sporadically and I’m really not good at it anymore. But it is really relaxing. It helps relieve the stress of the day.

More on These Topics: Ice Road Truckers | Lisa Kelly