John Waters
Known for: Directing
Born: April 22, 1946
Place of birth: 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.
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Filmography
160 movies · 51 TV shows, newest first
6.0
Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World
2026
1.0
Return to Mortville
2026
5.4
Kevin
2026
NR
Gays Against Guns
2026
5.1
Sarah Squirm: Live + in the Flesh
2025
5.8
Room Temperature
2025
7.0
TURA!
2025
NR
Velvet Vision: The Story of James Bidgood and the Making of Pink Narcissus
2025
4.0
It's Dorothy!
2025
6.0
A Summer with Joe, Liz and Richard
2025
6.7
Everybody's Live with John Mulaney
2025
7.8
Marisa y Gomoso
2025
7.0
As Time Goes By
2024
7.8
Doc of Chucky
2024
7.8
Scala!!!
2024
6.9
Lynch/Oz
2023
6.6
Little Richard: I Am Everything
2023
6.2
Digman!
2023
5.0
Don't Fall in Love with Yourself
2022
6.5
Fragments of Paradise
2022
6.6
Living with Chucky
2022
8.5
The Book of Harth
2022
7.0
Charles Band’s Full Moon Freakshow
2022
6.0
Tell Me Iggy
2022
6.7
The Andy Warhol Diaries
2022
7.0
Blood, Guts and Sunshine: The History of Horror Made in Florida
2021
6.8
The Velvet Underground
2021
7.8
Chucky
2021
6.7
Pride
2021NR
My Life with the Waters
2021
5.6
The Mystery of the Pink Flamingo
2020
7.6
Helluva Boss
2020
6.8
Time Warp Vol. 3: Comedy and Camp
2020
5.7
Time Warp Vol. 2: Horror and Sci-Fi
2020
6.0
Time Warp Vol. 1: Midnight Madness
2020
7.2
Time Warp: The Greatest Cult Films of All Time
2020
NR
Joel Calls Indie Film Type Dudes
2020
5.3
30/30 Vision: Three Decades of Strand Releasing
2019
10.0
At the Video Store
2019
6.1
Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn
2019
NR
Sniffing Out ‘Polyester’
2019
6.3
Permanent Green Light
2019
NR
Mugworth
2018
6.5
Liverspots and Astronots
2018NR
Crime and Beauty: Making ‘Female Trouble’
2018
NR
Female Trouble: On-Set Footage
2018
7.5
Explained
2018
5.0
Sickies Making Films
2018
7.0
Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution
2017
7.6
FEUD
2017
5.2
Mansfield 66/67
2017
7.3
Hairspray Live!
2016
6.9
Search Party
2016
6.2
Wall Writers
2016
NR
In Conversation With Director John Waters, Actress Kathleen Turner and Actress Mink Stole
2016
2.0
Whatever Happened to Gelitin
2016
6.8
The New Yorker Presents
2016
6.0
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip
2015
5.7
Sympathy for the Devil: The True Story of The Process Church of the Final Judgment
2015
6.0
The 1000 Eyes of Dr Maddin
2015
6.1
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
2015
5.7
Seed Money: The Chuck Holmes Story
2015
7.3
Tab Hunter Confidential
2015
8.0
Kiddie Flamingos
2015
5.5
Suburban Gothic
2014
5.5
The Last Impresario
2014
8.0
Clarence
2014
7.3
I Am Divine
2014
5.1
Late Night with Seth Meyers
2014
6.5
HitRECord on TV with Joseph Gordon-Levitt
2014
NR
Jingle Bell Rocks!
2013
7.6
The Blacklist
20135.0
RuPaul Drives...
2013
5.0
Paul Bowles: The Cage Door Is Always Open
2013
5.9
The Sarnos: A Life in Dirty Movies
2013
7.0
Frankenstein: A Modern Myth
2012
6.2
Excision
2012
4.9
Mansome
2012
6.5
Finding Your Roots
2012
6.0
The Advocate for Fagdom
2011
6.9
Blank City
2011
1.0
Mangus!
2011
7.4
These Amazing Shadows
2011
6.5
William S. Burroughs: A Man Within
2010
6.4
Fish Hooks
2010
6.1
Herschell Gordon Lewis: The Godfather of Gore
2010
6.3
Beautiful Darling
2010
5.6
Putty Hill
2010
6.9
The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special - In 3D! On Ice!
2010
7.3
It Came from Kuchar
2009
4.9
Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen
2009
5.8
For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism
2009
7.5
RuPaul's Drag Race
2009
6.0
The Wild World of Ted V. Mikels
2008
5.0
Obscene: A Portrait of Barney Rosset and Grove Press
2008
4.5
Starz Inside: In the Gutter
2008
10.0
New Line Cinema: The First Generation and the Next Generation
2008
NR
Coven of the Heathenites
2008
10.0
365 Day Project
2007
6.0
You Can’t Stop the Beat: The Long Journey of "Hairspray"
2007
NR
The Roots of 'Hairspray'
2007
7.8
Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story
2007
5.0
The Junior Defenders
2007
NR
Jessica the Hippo
2007
5.4
Indie Sex
2007
7.3
An American Crime
2007
6.7
Hairspray
2007
6.7
Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
2007
6.0
Each Time I Kill
2007
7.7
'Til Death Do Us Part
2007
7.2
The Graham Norton Show
2007
5.2
Here’s Looking at You, Boy
2007
7.6
This Filthy World
20068.0
Treasures Untold: The Making of Disney's 'The Little Mermaid'
2006
6.6
Jackass Number Two
2006
7.1
This Film Is Not Yet Rated
2006NR
The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players: Off & On Broadway
2006
NR
I Love the '70s: Volume 2
2006
6.3
Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream
2006
10.0
Mommie Dearest: Joan Lives On
2006
6.0
The Henry Rollins Show
2006
6.0
42nd Street: From Book to Screen to Stage
2006
NR
Footlight Parade: Music for the Decades
2006NR
Busby Berkeley's Kaleidoscopic Eyes
2006
7.5
(buz'be bur'kle) n. A Study in Style
2006
6.9
Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea
2006
5.4
Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema
2006
6.6
That Man: Peter Berlin
2006
NR
Meet The Kuchar Brothers
2006
NR
I, of the Cyclops
2006
7.0
The Colbert Report
2005
7.6
My Name Is Earl
2005
7.6
It Came from... Baltimore!!
2005
7.7
All the Dirt on 'A Dirty Shame'
2005
6.5
Inside Deep Throat
2005
5.5
Seed of Chucky
2004
5.5
Thinking XXX
2004
5.4
A Dirty Shame
2004
NR
Closer Than That: A Documentary on Low
2004
6.8
Abby Singer
2003
6.1
Real Time with Bill Maher
2003
5.5
A History of Sex
200310.0
Sylvester: Mighty Real
2002
4.8
Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat
2002
6.9
The Cockettes
2002
6.8
Memories of Oz
2001
4.2
Welcome to Hollywood
2000
6.8
Pie in the Sky: The Brigid Berlin Story
2000
6.4
Cecil B. Demented
2000
7.2
Divine Trash
2000
6.8
Sweet and Lowdown
1999
8.0
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
1999
8.0
In Bad Taste
1999
8.5
Yesterday's Tomorrows
1999
8.3
Forever Hollywood
1999
6.1
Pecker
1998
6.0
The Roseanne Show
1998
7.4
So Graham Norton
1998
5.1
Anarchy TV
1998
7.0
Whipped
1998
4.3
The View
1997
5.4
Anthem
1997
8.1
E! True Hollywood Story
1996
NR
Ballyhoo: The Hollywood Sideshow!
1996
6.4
The Daily Show
1996
NR
God Save the Queens
1995
4.3
Family Album
1994
6.7
Serial Mom
1994
NR
The Big Wet
1993
6.5
Eurotrash
1993
7.7
Frasier
1993
6.4
Late Show with David Letterman
1993
8.1
Homicide: Life on the Street
1993
NR
Growing Up with John Waters
1993
5.5
HBO First Look
1992
6.0
Poison
1991
8.5
Gastronomic Getaway
1991
6.0
The Word
1990
6.5
Cry-Baby
1990
8.0
The Simpsons
1989
5.6
Homer and Eddie
1989
9.0
The Incredibly Strange Film Show
1988
6.8
Hairspray
1988
NR
Way USA!
1988
7.3
21 Jump Street
1987
6.6
Something Wild
1986
NR
The Ballad of Sexual Dependency
19857.6
Divine Waters
1985
NR
Nuart Theatre No Smoking PSA
1982
6.1
Late Night with David Letterman
1982
7.0
Polyester
1981
6.4
Desperate Living
1977
6.9
Female Trouble
1976
6.8
Edith's Shopping Bag
1976
6.9
Saturday Night Live
1975
6.5
Love Letter to Edie
1975
6.1
Pink Flamingos
1972
5.0
The Diane Linkletter Story
1970
6.2
Multiple Maniacs
1970
5.3
Mondo Trasho
1969
7.4
Eat Your Makeup
1968
4.0
Dorothy, the Kansas City Pot Head
19686.8
Roman Candles
1967
6.9
Hag in a Black Leather Jacket
1964
NR
Tony Awards
1956
NR
Mary Woronov: Cult Queen
—
NR
The Brandon Novak Story
—
NR
Baltigore
—NR
Mamie Exposed! The Life and Loves of the Last Blonde Bombshell
—NR
New Line: Independent Legacies
—
NR
Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance
—