Richard Dyer earned his doctoral degree in English at the University of Birmingham’s Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies. Before coming to King's College London in 2006, he was professor of Film Studies at the University of Warwick and a visiting professor at diverse Universities worldwide. Throughout his career, he concentrated on the social function of stardom, representation of homosexuality, gender, and race. Among others, he is the author of Heavenly Bodies: Film Stars and Society (1986); Now You See It: Studies on Lesbian and Gay Film (1990); The Matter of Images: Essays on Rrepresentations (1993) and The Culture of Queers(2002). He also published works on the interpretation and significance of musical films as well as a biography of the composer Nino Rota.