Nelly was born 2 November 1927 in Chiquián, Peru, to Manuel Carillo and Daria Tarazona. On 22 September 1959, in San Isidro, she married the engineer Rubén Espinoza Chávez, with whom she had two children, Rubén Dario Espinoza Carillo (born 1961) and Nelly Rosario Espinoza Carrillo (born 1962).[1][2]
Nelly Carrillo Espinoza studied at the Faculty of Biology at the National University of San Marcos (UNMSM) in Lima, where she took care of the department’s important scientific collection. In 1973 she received her doctorate from UNMSM with her dissertation titled A new species of the genus Sibynomorphus (Serpentes: Colubridae).[1][2]