John Waters

Directing · 2.5 popularity

Age

Movies

139

Born: April 22, 1946
From: Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Biography

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.

Works

139 films

Jackass Number Two

20066.6

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip

20156.0

Seed of Chucky

20045.5

Hairspray

20076.7

Pink Flamingos

19726.1

Inside Deep Throat

20056.4

Hairspray

19886.8

Serial Mom

19946.7

Welcome to Hollywood

20004.2

Sweet and Lowdown

19996.8

Excision

20126.2

Pecker

19986.1

Something Wild

19866.6

Thinking XXX

20045.5

Paul Bowles: The Cage Door Is Always Open

20135.0

These Amazing Shadows

20117.4

Wall Writers

20166.2

Sarah Squirm: Live + in the Flesh

20255.1

Cecil B. Demented

20006.4

Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World

2026

As Time Goes By

2024

I Am Divine

20147.3

Time Warp Vol. 1: Midnight Madness

20206.0

Forever Hollywood

19998.3

Baltigore

2026

Tab Hunter Confidential

20157.3

Abby Singer

20036.8

The Velvet Underground

20216.8

The Cockettes

20026.7

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

20106.9

Divine Waters

19857.6

Doc of Chucky

20247.8

Time Warp Vol. 2: Horror and Sci-Fi

20205.7

This Filthy World

20067.6

Mansfield 66/67

20174.8

Time Warp Vol. 3: Comedy and Camp

20206.8

Return to Mortville

20261.0

Yesterday's Tomorrows

19998.5

This Film Is Not Yet Rated

20067.1

Lynch/Oz

20237.0

Little Richard: I Am Everything

20236.6

Love Letter to Edie

19756.5

Seed Money: The Chuck Holmes Story

20155.7

Anarchy TV

19985.0

New Line: Independent Legacies

2026

Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema

20065.4

Homer and Eddie

19895.6

Tell Me Iggy

20226.0

William S. Burroughs: A Man Within

20106.5

30/30 Vision: Three Decades of Strand Releasing

20195.3

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

2026

You Can’t Stop the Beat: The Long Journey of "Hairspray"

20076.0

The Last Impresario

20145.5

Sniffing Out ‘Polyester’

2019

Suburban Gothic

20145.5

The Roots of 'Hairspray'

2007

Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream

20066.3

Here’s Looking at You, Boy

20075.2

Way USA!

1988

365 Day Project

200710.0

Starz Inside: In the Gutter

20084.5

The Book of Harth

20228.5

Blank City

20116.8

Frankenstein: A Modern Myth

20127.0

42nd Street: From Book to Screen to Stage

20066.0

A Summer with Joe, Liz and Richard

20256.0

Mugworth

2018

It Came from... Baltimore!!

20057.6

Mansome

20124.9

Ballyhoo: The Hollywood Sideshow!

1996

Mondo Trasho

19695.2

The Big Wet

1993

A History of Sex

20035.5

Herschell Gordon Lewis: The Godfather of Gore

20106.0

Scala!!!

20247.8

Edith's Shopping Bag

19766.8

Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution

20177.0

The 1000 Eyes of Dr Maddin

20156.0

Beautiful Darling

20106.0

Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn

20196.1

Divine Trash

20007.2

Memories of Oz

20016.8

In Bad Taste

19998.0

Sylvester: Mighty Real

200210.0

It Came from Kuchar

20097.2

Mary Woronov: Cult Queen

2026

Sickies Making Films

20185.0

Joel Calls Indie Film Type Dudes

2020

Jingle Bell Rocks!

2013

Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story

20077.8

At the Video Store

201910.0

Obscene: A Portrait of Barney Rosset and Grove Press

20084.4

Living with Chucky

20226.6

The Junior Defenders

20075.0

The Sarnos: A Life in Dirty Movies

20135.8

Fragments of Paradise

20226.5

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

2006

Anthem

19975.4

The Brandon Novak Story

2026

The Ballad of Sexual Dependency

1985

Gays Against Guns

2026

Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis

20076.6

Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat

20024.8

It's Dorothy!

20254.0

Pie in the Sky: The Brigid Berlin Story

20006.6

Crime and Beauty: Making ‘Female Trouble’

2018

Mangus!

20111.0

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

20217.0

TURA!

20257.0

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

2016

Jessica the Hippo

2007

All the Dirt on 'A Dirty Shame'

20057.7

Don't Fall in Love with Yourself

20225.0

New Line Cinema: The First Generation and the Next Generation

200810.0

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

20155.7

Each Time I Kill

20076.0

Busby Berkeley's Kaleidoscopic Eyes

2006

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

20067.5

The Mystery of the Pink Flamingo

20205.6

The Wild World of Ted V. Mikels

20086.0

Female Trouble: On-Set Footage

2018

Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea

20066.8

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

2025

Mommie Dearest: Joan Lives On

200610.0

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

20095.7

That Man: Peter Berlin

20066.5

God Save the Queens

1995

The Advocate for Fagdom

20115.3

Growing Up with John Waters

1993

The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players: Off & On Broadway

2006

Whatever Happened to Gelitin

20162.0

Footlight Parade: Music for the Decades

2006

Nuart Theatre No Smoking PSA

1982

Closer Than That: A Documentary on Low

2004

Gastronomic Getaway

19918.5

Meet The Kuchar Brothers

2006

Coven of the Heathenites

2008

My Life with the Waters

2021

I, of the Cyclops

2006