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

Girls Gone Greek

The most influential character on Showtime’s Yellowjackets is the one who goes unnamed: Dionysus.

Politics & History

Quintessential Resilience: The Breadfruit in the Caribbean

The breadfruit tree has coexisted with humans for more than three thousand years. Its future may depend on how strong of an ally humans can become to it.

Business & Economics

The Art of the Deal or the Dirt?

Will so-called Trump Tariffs ensure that the United States has the minerals it needs to transition to sustainable energy?

Politics & History

Greenland: Polar Politics

Though it may seem like a new topic of concern, the glaciated landscape of Greenland has floated in and out of American politics for decades.

Business & Economics

How Progressives Legalized Usury

In the early twentieth century, reformers united with capitalists to promote high-interest lending, overthrowing opposition to usury rooted in Christian tradition.