I am Professor of Film and Television. I teach a wide range of subjects on the film programme, including animation, documentary and experimental film, a module on Cinema in the Digital Ages, and a horror module Screening the Undead.  My research focuses upon gothic and horror genres in film and television, with a particular interest in the vampire and zombie. I am currently working on a range of projects in relation to the horror genre. I am researching a monograph on Horror and animation; developing a project, with Lorna Jowett, on women creators of TV horror; and am co-edited the Routledge Companion to Horror. I am also the co-chair of the BAFTSS Special Interest Group on Science Fiction and Fantasy. 

I have recently completed an edited collection on Global TV Horror, co-edited with Lorna Jowett, and published by the University of Wales Press in 2021 and my monograph on Kathryn Bigelow's cult vampire film Near Dark was published as part of the BFI Classic Series in Autumn 2020. Other recent publications include  Undead Apocalypse: Vampires and Zombies in the 21st Century (Edinburgh University Press, 2016), TV Horror: Investigating the Dark Side of the Small Screen (I.B. Tauris,2013), co-written with Lorna Jowett from the University of Northampton and Supernatural: TV Goes to Hell (ECW Press, 2011), co-edited with David Lavery from Middle Tennessee State University. I have guest edited, with Lorna Jowett and Michael Starr of Northampton University, a special issues of the journal Horror Studies devoted to the televisual vampire. I have also guest edited, with Simon Brown of Kingston University, a special issue of Slayage: The Journal of Whedon Studies to mark the 20th anniversary of Angel and a special issue of the journal Science Fiction Film and Television examining the legacy of The X-Files.  I have also guest edited a special issue of Critical Studies in Television on special effects.

I continue to explore a research interest in cult television and was the Series Editor for the Investigating Cult TV series at I.B. Tauris, which is comprised of a total of sixteen books. Before joining the University of Roehampton in 2002, I worked as an Education Officer for the British Film Institute, organising lectures, seminars and conferences as part of the public cinema programme at the BFI Southbank.

BFA (Concordia University), MA (University of East Anglia), PhD (Birbkeck College, University of London)

My main research interests surround genre cinema and television, with particular expertise in the horror genre and the vampire and zombie in film and television. I have also done extensive research around Cult and American Quality Television, by looking at the cult series  American Horror Story, Angel, Alias, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, iZombie, Lost, Supernatural, True Blood, Torchwood and The Walking Dead. Other interests include genre theory, silent cinema, romantic comedy, science fiction, special effects, and Canadian cinema.

I am a member of the British Film Institute, the Media, Communications and Cultural Studies Association (MeCCSA), and BAFTSS. 

I am a member of the Editorial Board for the journal Science Fiction Film and Television; Intensities: The Journal of Cult Media, the University of Liverpool's Devils' Advocates series, and the University of Wales series of publications on Horror. I am also a Contributing Editor for the journal Critical Studies in Television and on the Editorial Advisory Board for Reframe, an open access academic digital platform for the online practice, publication and curation of internationally produced research and scholarship.

I have, on numerous occasions, been invited to contribute to radio discussions about contemporary film genres, including the role of the Prom within contemporary teen comedies on Woman's Hour (BBC Radio 4), developments within the chick-flick and the rom-com on the Today programme (BBC Radio 4) and Under Surveillance (WLUW in Chicago) respectively, and the modern horror and vampire genres on BBC Three Counties Radio. I have also been interviewed about cult TV, the vampire in film, and the horror genre in film and TV for both online and print media, such as the LA Times, Wall Street Journal.com, NewScotsman.com, Neatorama.com, and Twisted Tales.

I have given public lectures on a wide range of topics, including Egypt on Film, developments within the Mummy Movie, the work of Canadian Pioneer filmmaker Nell Shipman, TV Horror, and the Vampire on Film at the following venues: BFI Southbank, the British Museum, the BFI Library Researcher's Tales series, St. Bart's Pathology Museum, and Bo'nesse Hippodrome, Scotland. I have also inroduced films at the BFI Southbank, the Dundee Contemporary Arts and the Hertfordshire Film Consortium. I regularly provide guest lectures at other Higher Education Institutions, including lectures on Archive Research for the Institute of Romantic and Germanic Studies at the University of London, Cult TV for Kingston University, and the zombie in film and television at the University of Hertfordshire.

I have been a regular blogger for CSTonline about which I discuss developments within cult and Horror TV. In 2009, I was a consultant for the 'Bram Stoker's Dracula on Screen' Season at the Irish Film Institute, programme as part of the Dublin: One City One Book celebrations of Stoker's Dracula.

I regularly act as a peer reviewer for a wide range of scholarly journals including The Journal of Adaptation Studies, The Journal of Popular Romance, Celebrity Studies, Feminist Media Studies and Science Fiction Studies. I have also reviewed proposals and manuscripts for international publishers such as Syracuse University Press, I.B. Tauris and the BFI/Palgrave. Between 2004-2006 I was the Series Editor for the British Film Institute's Understanding Media series of publications.

My teaching interests include genre studies, the horror genre, the vampire in film and television, cult film and television, world cinemas, and the history of animation.

The undergraduate modules I've taught at Roehampton include:

HE1

Reading Film

Film History and Criticism

HE2

Genre and Cultural Context

Forms of Fiction

Forms of Animation

World Cinemas

HE3

Issues of Authorship

The Modern Vampire

Dissertation Research Methods

At MA level, I have taught the module Cinema as a Cultural Institution and I regularly offer post-graduate research methodologies seminars on Archive Research and Reception Studies.