Miriam Petty is an assistant professor in the Department of Radio/​Television/​Film and African American Studies at Northwestern University, and a Public Voices Fellow. She writes and teaches on issues of stardom, reception, genre, race, and media, and is especially interested in the history of African American representation in Hollywood film. Her forthcoming book, Stealing the Show: African American Performers and Audiences in 1930s Hollywood (University of California Press) explores the complex relationships between black audiences and black performers during the studio era. In her current project, she is examining the layered connections between the work of contemporary African American filmmaker Tyler Perry and key African American cultural movements and institutions.