John Waters

John Waters is an openly gay American filmmaker, writer, and artist known as the "Pope of Trash" — the auteur behind some of the most deliberately transgressive, camp-infused, and queer films in American cinema history. Working in Baltimore with a rotating troupe of performers including Divine, Mink Stole, and Edith Massey, he created a body of low-budget cult films — Multiple Maniacs (1970), Pink Flamingos (1972), Female Trouble (1974), Polyester (1981) — that celebrated ugliness, excess, and outsider identity as forms of radical freedom. His later career brought mainstream success with Hairspray (1988), Cry-Baby (1990), and Serial Mom (1994). Waters has written extensively about his life and aesthetics in books including Shock Value (1981), Crackpot (1986), and Carsick (2014). He has been a visible, joyful, moustachioed presence in LGBTQ+ culture for over fifty years.