Barry King is Professor of Communications and Associate Dean International at Auckland University of Technologies. He was trained as a sociologist at City University, London and received his doctorate in Media Sociology from the London School of Economics. He has held senior positions at Universities in the UK and the USA and Sweden. He is currently a visiting scholar at ASC. His publications encompass popular photography, the sociology of acting and performance, American media culture, stardom and celebrity, violence and the media and visual semiotics, celebrity and the work order of precarious labour, acting and digital media, New Zealand film culture. He was a member of the board of Screen in the 80's and is on the editorial board of Celebrity Culture. He is a co-editor and contributor to Studying the Event film: The Lord of the Rings Manchester University press (2008) and currently completing a book on Contemporary Stardom (Peter Lang)2008.