Kelli Marshall

Kelli Marshall teaches courses on Seinfeld, stand-up comedy, 1980s flicks, Quentin Tarantino, and other fun stuff at DePaul University. When she’s not teaching or live-tweeting Scandal and The Walking Dead, Kelli researches two rather disparate fields: Shakespeare in film and popular culture, and the film musical, specifically the star image and work of Hollywood song-and-dance man Gene Kelly. Her work has appeared in The Week, Mental Floss, AlterNet, FlowTV, Literature/Film Quarterly, and other mainstream and academic publications. Follow Kelli on Twitter at @kellimarshall or contact her at kellimarshall.net.

A movie audience watches 1950's actress Gloria Graham with bandages over one side of her face from an older film

Stars and Scars: Disfigurement in Film

Onscreen, scarring represents a loss of beauty for women and toughness for men, but what about the actors who bear visible scars?

Black and white images of Humphrey Bogart lighting his trademark cigarette and Buster Keaton posed behind bars side-by-side

Don’t Say Cheese! The Smiles of Buster Keaton and Humphrey Bogart

Some celebrities like Buster Keaton and Humphrey Bogart are recognized for not smiling—and when they do, it comes across as, well, unnatural.

Ballerina, Leslie Caron leans on Gene Kelly's arm in "An American in Paris"

An American in Paris: Onstage and Onscreen

Whatever your thoughts on the Broadway production, An American in Paris is a big deal in the history of movie musicals.

Do the Right Thing (1989)
Spike Lee, Danny Aiello
Credit: Universal Pictures/Courtesy Neal Peters Collection

Forming a Critical Sense of Race with Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing”

Interpretations of the film may differ by race, media scholar Kelli Marshall finds.

Marc Maron podcasting in his garage.

Why You Know Marc Maron Better Than Your Own Family

How the transmedia work of Marc Maron engages with fans.

Willie Robertson

Rednecks: A Brief History

What is a "redneck" exactly? Kelli Marshall explores a brief history of the word.

Advertisement for King Lear starring Derek Jacobi

Streaming Shakespeare in the Twenty-First Century

What does "live theatre" truly mean when it's broadcast to cinema screens? And how does streaming Shakespeare stack up to the theatrical version?

Illustration of a conductor at the front of the stage directing a framed painting

Animated Gifs: A Throwback to Cinema’s Beginnings

Animated gifs function like early cinema in several ways.

Bulldozer

“The Phantom of Hollywood” and the Demise of the MGM Film Musical

The Hollywood musical was slaughtered onscreen for the entertainment of the spectator in The Phantom of Hollywood, a horribly tacky made-for-TV movie.

Editors' Picks

James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni in Conversation

In 1971, two legends of Black letters discussed Black manhood, white racism, the role of the writer, and the responsibility to teach.

Science & Technology

Can We Build a Better Facebook?

Is it time to turn our back on Facebook? And if so, what social network could possibly replace it?

Science & Technology

The Anatomists of Ancient Alexandria

Cultural forces under the Ptolemaic dynasty briefly allowed scholars like Herophilus to practice dissection—and possibly vivisection—on human subjects.

Politics & History

The Genocide Before the Shoah

For a century, Jews in Turkey have maintained a strategic silence when it comes to recognizing the Armenian genocide. Could that be changing?

Politics & History

Wilhelm Reich: Twice Burned

A psychoanalyst and physician, Reich fled the Nazis only to be detained by the US as an “enemy alien” during World War II. And then came the sexual revolution.