Roy Dicks earned BAs in Drama and English  at East Carolina University, participating in student productions as well as the professional summer theater there. After coming to Raleigh, Roy was seen on stage in over sixty roles around the Triangle. He later turned to directing, staging over 30 productions for various theaters, including Raleigh Ensemble Players, which he co-founded and was co-artistic director for a decade. Roy wrote theater reviews for the weekly Raleigh Spectator Magazine for eight years (1979-1986) and was a theatre critic and performing arts writer for the Raleigh News & Observer for 21 years (1997-2018). He currently writes theater reviews for Classical Voice of North Carolina (cvnc.org).