Directing
John Waters
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.
Movies with John Waters
Hairspray
2007
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip
2015
Hairspray
1988
Jackass Number Two
2006
Seed of Chucky
2004
Pink Flamingos
1972
Thinking XXX
2004
Inside Deep Throat
2005
Forever Hollywood
1999
Sweet and Lowdown
1999
Abby Singer
2003
Serial Mom
1994
Sniffing Out ‘Polyester’
2019
Something Wild
1986
The Cockettes
2002
Sarah Squirm: Live + in the Flesh
2025
Pecker
1998
These Amazing Shadows
2011
Welcome to Hollywood
2000
Anarchy TV
1998
Cecil B. Demented
2000
Doc of Chucky
2024
Excision
2012
I Am Divine
2014
The Velvet Underground
2021
Scala!!!
2024
You Can’t Stop the Beat: The Long Journey of "Hairspray"
2007
Suburban Gothic
2014
Tab Hunter Confidential
2015
Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World
2026
Living with Chucky
2022
Yesterday's Tomorrows
1999
Seed Money: The Chuck Holmes Story
2015
This Film Is Not Yet Rated
2006
Baltigore
In Bad Taste
1999
This Filthy World
2006
Divine Waters
1985
Homer and Eddie
1989
The Last Impresario
2014
Mansfield 66/67
2017
Wall Writers
2016
Tell Me Iggy
2022
Time Warp Vol. 1: Midnight Madness
2020
Mugworth
2018
365 Day Project
2007
Lynch/Oz
2023
The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special - In 3D! On Ice!
2010
As Time Goes By
2024
It's Dorothy!
2025
Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream
2006
Mamie Exposed! The Life and Loves of the Last Blonde Bombshell
Beautiful Darling
2010
Time Warp Vol. 3: Comedy and Camp
2020
Mondo Trasho
1969
A History of Sex
2003
Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema
2006
Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn
2019
Sympathy for the Devil: The True Story of The Process Church of the Final Judgment
2015
Blank City
2011
Divine Trash
2000
Way USA!
1988
Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story
2007
Serial Mom: Surreal Moments
The Roots of 'Hairspray'
2007
The Book of Harth
2022
Little Richard: I Am Everything
2023
Jingle Bell Rocks!
2013
Time Warp Vol. 2: Horror and Sci-Fi
2020
At the Video Store
2019
Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution
2017
Sylvester: Mighty Real
2002
The Junior Defenders
2007
It Came from Kuchar
2009
Love Letter to Edie
1975
Mangus!
2011
All the Dirt on 'A Dirty Shame'
2005
Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
2007
Each Time I Kill
2007
TURA!
2025
The Sarnos: A Life in Dirty Movies
2013
Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat
2002
42nd Street: From Book to Screen to Stage
2006
Memories of Oz
2001
Treasures Untold: The Making of Disney's 'The Little Mermaid'
2006
William S. Burroughs: A Man Within
2010
Mansome
2012
Fragments of Paradise
2022
Mary Woronov: Cult Queen
Frankenstein: A Modern Myth
2012
Here’s Looking at You, Boy
2007
30/30 Vision: Three Decades of Strand Releasing
2019
The Big Wet
1993
Gays Against Guns
2026
Female Trouble: On-Set Footage
2018
The Brandon Novak Story
Starz Inside: In the Gutter
2008
Sickies Making Films
2018
The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players: Off & On Broadway
2006
For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism
2009
Crime and Beauty: Making ‘Female Trouble’
2018
Nuart Theatre No Smoking PSA
1982
Pie in the Sky: The Brigid Berlin Story
2000
God Save the Queens
1995
The Ballad of Sexual Dependency
1985
Mommie Dearest: Joan Lives On
2006
Anthem
1997
(buz'be bur'kle) n. A Study in Style
2006
Ballyhoo: The Hollywood Sideshow!
1996
The Wild World of Ted V. Mikels
2008
Busby Berkeley's Kaleidoscopic Eyes
2006
Edith's Shopping Bag
1976
New Line Cinema: The First Generation and the Next Generation
2008
It Came from... Baltimore!!
2005
Blood, Guts and Sunshine: The History of Horror Made in Florida
2021
Return to Mortville
2026
Paul Bowles: The Cage Door Is Always Open
2013
That Man: Peter Berlin
2006
Joel Calls Indie Film Type Dudes
2020
The 1000 Eyes of Dr Maddin
2015
Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea
2006
Herschell Gordon Lewis: The Godfather of Gore
2010
Velvet Vision: The Story of James Bidgood and the Making of Pink Narcissus
2025
Jessica the Hippo
2007
In Conversation With Director John Waters, Actress Kathleen Turner and Actress Mink Stole
2016
Don't Fall in Love with Yourself
2022
The Advocate for Fagdom
2011
My Life with the Waters
A Summer with Joe, Liz and Richard
2025
Growing Up with John Waters
1993
Whatever Happened to Gelitin
2016
Footlight Parade: Music for the Decades
2006
Closer Than That: A Documentary on Low
2004
The Mystery of the Pink Flamingo
2020
I, of the Cyclops
2006
Obscene: A Portrait of Barney Rosset and Grove Press
2008
Meet The Kuchar Brothers
2006
Gastronomic Getaway
1991
Coven of the Heathenites
2008
TV Shows with John Waters
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
1999
The Simpsons
1989
The Blacklist
2013
Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen
2009
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
2015
Late Night with Seth Meyers
2014
The Daily Show
1996
Real Time with Bill Maher
2003
The Graham Norton Show
2007
Frasier
1993
Saturday Night Live
1975
The Colbert Report
2005
Late Show with David Letterman
1993
RuPaul's Drag Race
2009
21 Jump Street
1987
The View
1997
Clarence
2014
Tony Awards
1956
Homicide: Life on the Street
1993
Chucky
2021
My Name Is Earl
2005
Late Night with David Letterman
1982
Eurotrash
1993
Fish Hooks
2010
Helluva Boss
2020
Search Party
2016
FEUD
2017
Finding Your Roots
2012
Explained
2018
HBO First Look
1992
Digman!
2023
Offspring
2010
Kevin
2026
Everybody's Live with John Mulaney
2025
So Graham Norton
1998
Indie Sex
2007
HitRECord on TV with Joseph Gordon-Levitt
2014
The Henry Rollins Show
2006
Time Warp: The Greatest Cult Films of All Time
2020
The Andy Warhol Diaries
2022
I Love the '70s: Volume 2
2006
Pride
2021
RuPaul Drives...
2013
The Incredibly Strange Film Show
1988
'Til Death Do Us Part
2007
Liverspots and Astronots
2018
Charles Band’s Full Moon Freakshow
2022
Family Album
1994
E! True Hollywood Story
1996
The New Yorker Presents
2016
The Roseanne Show
1998