Directing
John Waters
1946-04-22 · Baltimore, Maryland, USA
John Samuel Waters Jr. (born April 22, 1946) is an American filmmaker, writer, actor, and artist. He rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films, including Multiple Maniacs (1970), Pink Flamingos (1972) and Female Trouble (1974). Waters wrote and directed the comedy film Hairspray (1988), which was later adapted into a hit Broadway musical and a 2007 musical film. Other films he has written and directed include Desperate Living (1977), Polyester (1981), Cry-Baby (1990), Serial Mom (1994), Pecker (1998), and Cecil B. Demented (2000). His films contain elements of post-modern comedy and surrealism. As an actor, Waters has appeared in Sweet and Lowdown (1999), 'Til Death Do Us Part (2007), Mangus! (2011), Excision (2012), Suburban Gothic (2014), and has appeared in the Child's Play franchise with Seed of Chucky (2004) and third season of the television series Chucky (2024). He hosted and produced the television series John Waters Presents Movies That Will Corrupt You (2006). Throughout his career, Waters has often collaborated with actor and drag queen Divine and his regular cast of the Dreamlanders. More recently, he performs in his touring one-man show This Filthy World. Waters also works as a visual artist and across different media, such as installations, photography, and sculpture. The audiobooks he narrated for his books Carsick and Mr. Know-It-All were nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album in 2015 and 2020, respectively. In 2018, Waters was named an officer of the Order of Arts and Letters in France. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2023.
Known for
The Simpsons
American Horror Story
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Chucky
The Blacklist
Hairspray
Seed of Chucky
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip
Cry-Baby
Jackass Number Two
My Name Is Earl
Frasier
Serial Mom
An American Crime
The Daily Show
Excision
Movie credits · 162
Vincent Price: What Keeps Us Alive
Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World
Return to Mortville
Eddie Cochran: Don't Forget Me
Gays Against Guns
Sarah Squirm: Live + in the Flesh
Room Temperature
TURA!
Velvet Vision: The Story of James Bidgood and the Making of Pink Narcissus
It's Dorothy!
A Summer with Joe, Liz and Richard
Marisa y Gomoso
As Time Goes By
Doc of Chucky
Scala!!!
Lynch/Oz
Little Richard: I Am Everything
Don't Fall in Love with Yourself
Fragments of Paradise
Living with Chucky
The Book of Harth
Tell Me Iggy
Blood, Guts and Sunshine: The History of Horror Made in Florida
The Velvet Underground
My Life with the Waters
The Mystery of the Pink Flamingo
Time Warp Vol. 3: Comedy and Camp
Time Warp Vol. 2: Horror and Sci-Fi
Time Warp Vol. 1: Midnight Madness
Joel Calls Indie Film Type Dudes
30/30 Vision: Three Decades of Strand Releasing
At the Video Store
Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn
Sniffing Out ‘Polyester’
Permanent Green Light
Mugworth
Crime and Beauty: Making ‘Female Trouble’
Female Trouble: On-Set Footage
Sickies Making Films
Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution
TV credits · 52
Kevin
Everybody's Live with John Mulaney
Digman!
Charles Band’s Full Moon Freakshow
The Andy Warhol Diaries
Chucky
Pride
Helluva Boss
Time Warp: The Greatest Cult Films of All Time
Liverspots and Astronots
Explained
FEUD
Search Party
The New Yorker Presents
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Clarence
Late Night with Seth Meyers
HitRECord on TV with Joseph Gordon-Levitt
The Blacklist
RuPaul Drives...
Finding Your Roots
American Horror Story
Fish Hooks
Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen
RuPaul's Drag Race
Indie Sex
'Til Death Do Us Part
The Graham Norton Show
I Love the '70s: Volume 2
The Henry Rollins Show
The Colbert Report
My Name Is Earl
Real Time with Bill Maher
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
The Roseanne Show
So Graham Norton
The View
E! True Hollywood Story
The Daily Show
Family Album
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