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.
21 directing credits · 187 acting credits
Directing · 21
Desperate Living
1977
Pink Flamingos
1976
Cry-Baby
1990
Polyester
1981
Serial Mom
1994
Hairspray
1988
A Dirty Shame
2004
Female Trouble
1976
Pecker
1998
Multiple Maniacs
1970
Cecil B. Demented
2000
30/30 Vision: Three Decades of Strand Releasing
2019
Mondo Trasho
1969
The Diane Linkletter Story
1970
Eat Your Makeup
1968
Roman Candles
1967
Dorothy, the Kansas City Pot Head
1968
Hag in a Black Leather Jacket
1964
Kiddie Flamingos
2015
Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance
—
Nuart Theatre no smoking PSA
1982
Acting · 187
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
1999
The Simpsons
1989
The Blacklist
2013
The Daily Show
1996
Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen
2009
Late Night with Seth Meyers
2014
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
2015
The Graham Norton Show
2007
Late Show with David Letterman
1993
Saturday Night Live
1975
Real Time with Bill Maher
2003
Frasier
1993
The Colbert Report
2005
RuPaul's Drag Race
2009
The View
1997
21 Jump Street
1987
My Name Is Earl
2005
Tony Awards
1956
Homicide: Life on the Street
1993
Late Night with David Letterman
1982
Clarence
2014
Chucky
2021
Finding Your Roots
2012
Search Party
2016
Fish Hooks
2010
Explained
2018
Helluva Boss
2020
FEUD
2017
HBO First Look
1992
Everybody's Live with John Mulaney
2025
Digman!
2023
Offspring
2010
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip
2015
Eurotrash
1993
Seed of Chucky
2004
The Incredibly Strange Film Show
1988
So Graham Norton
1998
Kevin
2026
Indie Sex
2007
HitRECord on TV with Joseph Gordon-Levitt
2014
Pink Flamingos
1976
Hairspray
2007
Pride
2021
Inside Deep Throat
2005
Charles Band’s Full Moon Freakshow
2022
The Andy Warhol Diaries
2022
Thinking XXX
2004
The Henry Rollins Show
2006
Crime and Beauty: Making ‘Female Trouble’
2018
Jackass Number Two
2006
Liverspots and Astronots
2018
Serial Mom
1994
RuPaul Drives...
2013
Hairspray
1988
I Love the '70s: Volume 2
2006
E! True Hollywood Story
1996
The New Yorker Presents
2016
Family Album
1994
Time Warp: The Greatest Cult Films of All Time
2020
'Til Death Do Us Part
2007
Something Wild
1986
Excision
2012
The Roseanne Show
1998
Pecker
1998
Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema
2006
Sweet and Lowdown
1999
Doc of Chucky
2024
Cecil B. Demented
2000
The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special - In 3D! On Ice!
2010
Sarah Squirm: Live + in the Flesh
2025
Tab Hunter Confidential
2015
Treasures Untold: The Making of Disney's 'The Little Mermaid'
2006
Suburban Gothic
2014
This Film Is Not Yet Rated
2006
Time Warp Vol. 2: Horror and Sci-Fi
2020
Time Warp Vol. 1: Midnight Madness
2020
Abby Singer
2003
Lynch/Oz
2023
30/30 Vision: Three Decades of Strand Releasing
2019
Frankenstein: A Modern Myth
2012
Blank City
2011
Welcome to Hollywood
2000
Beautiful Darling
2010
These Amazing Shadows
2011
Homer and Eddie
1989
Living with Chucky
2022
I Am Divine
2014
Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn
2019
Little Richard: I Am Everything
2023
Seed Money: The Chuck Holmes Story
2015
The Velvet Underground
2021
Mondo Trasho
1969
Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat
2002
42nd Street: From Book to Screen to Stage
2006
365 Day Project
2007
Mansome
2012
William S. Burroughs: A Man Within
2010
Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution
2017
Anarchy TV
1998
Forever Hollywood
1999
Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story
2007
Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream
2006
Scala!!!
2024
A History of Sex
2003
Yesterday's Tomorrows
1999
Time Warp Vol. 3: Comedy and Camp
2020
The Cockettes
2002
In Bad Taste
1999
At the Video Store
2019
Joel Calls Indie Film Type Dudes
2020
Divine Trash
2000
Blood, Guts and Sunshine: The History of Horror Made in Florida
2021
Mansfield 66/67
2017
Anthem
1997
Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
2007
Mary Woronov: Cult Queen
—
The Last Impresario
2014
As Time Goes By
2024
The Sarnos: A Life in Dirty Movies
2013
The Junior Defenders
2007
TURA!
2025
Sylvester: Mighty Real
2002
Tell Me Iggy
2022
This Filthy World
2006
The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players: Off & On Broadway
2006
Mangus!
2011
Here’s Looking at You, Boy
2007
Obscene: A Portrait of Barney Rosset and Grove Press
2008
Paul Bowles: The Cage Door Is Always Open
2013
Herschell Gordon Lewis: The Godfather of Gore
2010
For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism
2009
It Came from Kuchar
2009
Starz Inside: In the Gutter
2008
Fragments of Paradise
2022
Mamie Exposed! The Life and Loves of the Last Blonde Bombshell
—
Sniffing Out ‘Polyester’
2019
Sympathy for the Devil: The True Story of The Process Church of the Final Judgment
2015
Love Letter to Edie
1975
Each Time I Kill
2007
The Advocate for Fagdom
2011
Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea
2006
Ballyhoo: The Hollywood Sideshow!
1996
The Wild World of Ted V. Mikels
2008
New Line Cinema: The First Generation and the Next Generation
2008
The Mystery of the Pink Flamingo
2020
A Summer with Joe, Liz and Richard
2025
The Ballad of Sexual Dependency
1985
In Conversation With Director John Waters, Actress Kathleen Turner and Actress Mink Stole
2016
Gastronomic Getaway
1991
It Came from... Baltimore!!
2005
Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World
2026
Mugworth
2018
Whatever Happened to Gelitin
2016
Closer Than That: A Documentary on Low
2004
It's Dorothy!
2025
That Man: Peter Berlin
2006
Mommie Dearest: Joan Lives On
2006
(buz'be bur'kle) n. A Study in Style
2006
The Book of Harth
2022
Way USA!
1988
Divine Waters
1985
All the Dirt on 'A Dirty Shame'
2005
Velvet Vision: The Story of James Bidgood and the Making of Pink Narcissus
2025
Baltigore
—
Don't Fall in Love with Yourself
2022
God Save the Queens
1995
The Brandon Novak Story
—
My Life with the Waters
—
Footlight Parade: Music for the Decades
2006
Meet The Kuchar Brothers
2006
The 1000 Eyes of Dr Maddin
2015
Sickies Making Films
2018
Jessica the Hippo
2007
Pie in the Sky: The Brigid Berlin Story
2000
Wall Writers
2016
Growing Up with John Waters
1993
Jingle Bell Rocks!
2013
Female Trouble: On-Set Footage
2018
Serial Mom: Surreal Moments
—
Memories of Oz
2001
I, of the Cyclops
2006
Edith's Shopping Bag
1976
Coven of the Heathenites
2008
Busby Berkeley's Kaleidoscopic Eyes
2006
The Big Wet
1993
Nuart Theatre no smoking PSA
1982
Gays Against Guns
2026