Matthew Kennedy is a writer, film historian, anthropologist, and host and curator of the CinemaLit Film Series at the Mechanics' Institute in San Francisco. He is the author of three biographies of classic Hollywood: Marie Dressler: A Biography (McFarland, 1999, paperback 2006), Edmund Goulding's Dark Victory: Hollywood's Genius Bad Boy (University of Wisconsin Press, 2004), Joan Blondell: A Life between Takes (University Press of Mississippi, 2007), and Roadshow! The Fall of Film Musicals in the 1960s, (Oxford University Press in 2014). His newest book, On Elizabeth Taylor: An Opinionated Guide, was published in 2024 by Oxford University Press.