John Waters

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.

Filmography (179 Appearances)

Kevin

Upcoming (2026)

Baltigore

TBA

Mamie Exposed! The Life and Loves of the Last Blonde Bombshell

TBA

Mary Woronov: Cult Queen

TBA

My Life with the Waters

TBA

The Brandon Novak Story

TBA

Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World

2026

Gays Against Guns

2026

Sarah Squirm: Live + in the Flesh

2025

TURA!

2025

Velvet Vision: The Story of James Bidgood and the Making of Pink Narcissus

2025

It's Dorothy!

2025

A Summer with Joe, Liz and Richard

2025

Everybody's Live with John Mulaney

2025

As Time Goes By

2024

Doc of Chucky

2024

Scala!!!

2024

Lynch/Oz

2023

Little Richard - I Am Everything

2023

Digman!

2023

Don't Fall in Love with Yourself

2022

Fragments of Paradise

2022

Living with Chucky

2022

The Book of Harth

2022

Charles Band’s Full Moon Freakshow

2022

Tell Me Iggy

2022

The Andy Warhol Diaries

2022

Blood, Guts and Sunshine: The History of Horror Made in Florida

2021

The Velvet Underground

2021

Chucky

2021

Pride

2021

The Mystery of the Pink Flamingo

2020

Helluva Boss

2020

Time Warp Vol. 3: Comedy and Camp

2020

Time Warp Vol. 2: Horror and Sci-Fi

2020

Time Warp Vol. 1: Midnight Madness

2020

Joel Calls Indie Film Type Dudes

2020

30/30 Vision: Three Decades of Strand Releasing

2019

At the Video Store

2019

Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn

2019

Sniffing Out ‘Polyester’

2019

Mugworth

2018

Liverspots and Astronots

2018

Crime and Beauty: Making ‘Female Trouble’

2018

Female Trouble: On-Set Footage

2018

Explained

2018

Sickies Making Films

2018

Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution

2017

FEUD

2017

Mansfield 66/67

2017

Search Party

2016

Wall Writers

2016

In Conversation With Director John Waters, Actress Kathleen Turner and Actress Mink Stole

2016

Whatever Happened to Gelitin

2016

The New Yorker Presents

2016

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip

2015

Sympathy for the Devil: The True Story of The Process Church of the Final Judgment

2015

The 1000 Eyes of Dr Maddin

2015

Seed Money: The Chuck Holmes Story

2015

Tab Hunter Confidential

2015

Suburban Gothic

2014

The Last Impresario

2014

Clarence

2014

I Am Divine

2014

Late Night with Seth Meyers

2014

HitRECord on TV with Joseph Gordon-Levitt

2014

Jingle Bell Rocks!

2013

The Blacklist

2013

RuPaul Drives...

2013

Paul Bowles: The Cage Door Is Always Open

2013

The Sarnos: A Life in Dirty Movies

2013

Frankenstein: A Modern Myth

2012

Excision

2012

Mansome

2012

Finding Your Roots

2012

The Advocate for Fagdom

2011

Blank City

2011

Mangus!

2011

These Amazing Shadows

2011

William S. Burroughs: A Man Within

2010

Fish Hooks

2010

Offspring

2010

Herschell Gordon Lewis: The Godfather of Gore

2010

Beautiful Darling

2010

The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special - In 3D! On Ice!

2010

It Came from Kuchar

2009

Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen

2009

For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism

2009

RuPaul's Drag Race

2009

The Wild World of Ted V. Mikels

2008

Obscene: A Portrait of Barney Rosset and Grove Press

2008

Starz Inside: In the Gutter

2008

New Line Cinema: The First Generation and the Next Generation

2008

Coven of the Heathenites

2008

365 Day Project

2007

Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story

2007

The Junior Defenders

2007

Jessica the Hippo

2007

Indie Sex

2007

Hairspray

2007

Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis

2007

Each Time I Kill

2007

'Til Death Do Us Part

2007

The Graham Norton Show

2007

Here’s Looking at You, Boy

2007

This Filthy World

2006

Treasures Untold: The Making of Disney's 'The Little Mermaid'

2006

Jackass Number Two

2006

The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players: Off & On Broadway

2006

I Love the '70s: Volume 2

2006

Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream

2006

Mommie Dearest: Joan Lives On

2006

The Henry Rollins Show

2006

Footlight Parade: Music for the Decades

2006

(buz'be bur'kle) n. A Study in Style

2006

Busby Berkeley's Kaleidoscopic Eyes

2006

42nd Street: From Book to Screen to Stage

2006

Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea

2006

Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema

2006

This Film Is Not Yet Rated

2006

That Man: Peter Berlin

2006

I, of the Cyclops

2006

Meet The Kuchar Brothers

2006

The Colbert Report

2005

My Name Is Earl

2005

It Came from... Baltimore!!

2005

All the Dirt on 'A Dirty Shame'

2005

Inside Deep Throat

2005

Seed of Chucky

2004

Thinking XXX

2004

Closer Than That: A Documentary on Low

2004

Abby Singer

2003

Real Time with Bill Maher

2003

A History of Sex

2003

Sylvester: Mighty Real

2002

Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat

2002

The Cockettes

2002

Memories of Oz

2001

Welcome to Hollywood

2000

Pie in the Sky: The Brigid Berlin Story

2000

Cecil B. Demented

2000

Divine Trash

2000

Sweet and Lowdown

1999

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

1999

In Bad Taste

1999

Yesterday's Tomorrows

1999

Forever Hollywood

1999

Pecker

1998

So Graham Norton

1998

Anarchy TV

1998

Anthem

1997

E! True Hollywood Story

1996

Ballyhoo: The Hollywood Sideshow!

1996

The Daily Show

1996

God Save the Queens

1995

Family Album

1994

Serial Mom

1994

The Big Wet

1993

Frasier

1993

Homicide: Life on the Street

1993

Growing Up with John Waters

1993

HBO First Look

1992

Gastronomic Getaway

1991

The Simpsons

1989

Homer and Eddie

1989

The Incredibly Strange Film Show

1988

Hairspray

1988

Way USA!

1988

21 Jump Street

1987

Something Wild

1986

The Ballad of Sexual Dependency

1985

Divine Waters

1985

Nuart Theatre no smoking PSA

1982

Edith's Shopping Bag

1976

Saturday Night Live

1975

Love Letter to Edie

1975

Pink Flamingos

1972

Mondo Trasho

1969 Debut

Tony Awards

1956
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