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Personal Info
Known For
Directing
Birthday
April 22, 1946
Place of Birth
Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Also Known As
- John S. Waters
- جان واترز
John Waters
2.3 Popularity
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.
Known For
4.8
Stage Manager
Sarah Squirm: Live + in the Flesh
2025
0.0
Self
Velvet Vision: The Story of James Bidgood and the Making of Pink Narcissus
2025
0.0
Self
It's Dorothy!
2025
6.0
Self
A Summer with Joe, Liz and Richard
2025
5.0
Self - Writer and Film Director
Everybody's Live with John Mulaney
2025
0.0
As Time Goes By
2024
0.0
Self (archive footage)
TURA!
2024
7.0
Self
Doc of Chucky
2024
7.8
Self
Scala!!!
2024
6.9
Host (Chapter 3: 'Kindred') (voice)
Lynch/Oz
2023
Credits
Sarah Squirm: Live + in the Flesh
as Stage Manager
2025
4.8
Velvet Vision: The Story of James Bidgood and the Making of Pink Narcissus
as Self
2025
0.0
It's Dorothy!
as Self
2025
0.0
A Summer with Joe, Liz and Richard
as Self
2025
6.0
Everybody's Live with John Mulaney
as Self - Writer and Film Director
2025
5.0
As Time Goes By
2024
0.0
TURA!
as Self (archive footage)
2024
0.0
Doc of Chucky
as Self
2024
7.0
Scala!!!
as Self
2024
7.8
Lynch/Oz
as Host (Chapter 3: 'Kindred') (voice)
2023
6.9
Little Richard: I Am Everything
as Self
2023
6.5
Digman!
as Magnus (voice)
2023
6.1
Don't Fall in Love with Yourself
as Self (Archival)
2022
5.0
Fragments of Paradise
as Self
2022
6.5
Living with Chucky
as Self
2022
6.6
The Book of Harth
as Self
2022
8.5
Charles Band’s Full Moon Freakshow
2022
7.0
Tell Me Iggy
as Self
2022
8.0
The Andy Warhol Diaries
as Self
2022
6.6
Blood, Guts and Sunshine: The History of Horror Made in Florida
as Self [archival]
2021
7.0
The Velvet Underground
as Self
2021
6.8
Chucky
as Wendell Wilkins
2021
7.8
Pride
as Self
2021
6.7
The Mystery of the Pink Flamingo
as Himself
2020
5.6
Helluva Boss
as Rolando (voice)
2020
7.8
Time Warp Vol. 3: Comedy and Camp
as Host
2020
6.8
Time Warp Vol. 2: Horror and Sci-Fi
as Host
2020
6.4
Time Warp Vol. 1: Midnight Madness
as Host
2020
6.8
Joel Calls Indie Film Type Dudes
2020
0.0
30/30 Vision: Three Decades of Strand Releasing
as Self
2019
5.3
At the Video Store
as Self
2019
10.0
Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn
as Self
2019
6.1
Sniffing Out ‘Polyester’
as Self
2019
0.0
Mugworth
as Sir Butler
2018
0.0
Liverspots and Astronots
as O-Dor
2018
6.0
🎬
Crime and Beauty: Making ‘Female Trouble’
2018
0.0
Explained
as Narrator (voice)
2018
7.5
The Fancy Gentleman
as Wadworth Thorndyke the Third
2018
0.0
Sickies Making Films
as Self
2018
5.0
Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution
as Self
2017
7.0
FEUD
as William Castle
2017
7.6
Mansfield 66/67
as Self
2017
4.8
Search Party
as Sheffield
2016
6.8
Wall Writers
as Narrator (voice)
2016
6.2
In Conversation With Director John Waters, Actress Kathleen Turner and Actress Mink Stole
as Self
2016
0.0
Whatever Happened to Gelitin
as Self
2016
2.0
The New Yorker Presents
as Self
2016
6.8
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip
as First Class Passenger
2015
6.0
Sympathy for the Devil: The True Story of The Process Church of the Final Judgment
as Self
2015
5.7
The 1000 Eyes of Dr Maddin
2015
6.0
Seed Money: The Chuck Holmes Story
as Self
2015
5.8
Tab Hunter Confidential
as Self
2015
7.3
Suburban Gothic
as Cornelius
2014
5.5
Clarence
as Captain Tom (voice)
2014
8.0
I Am Divine
as Self
2014
7.3
Late Night with Seth Meyers
as Self
2014
5.3
HitRECord on TV with Joseph Gordon-Levitt
as Self
2014
6.4
Jingle Bell Rocks!
as Self
2013
0.0
The Blacklist
as John Waters
2013
7.6
🎬
RuPaul Drives...
as Self - Guest
2013
5.0
Paul Bowles: The Cage Door Is Always Open
as Self
2013
5.0
The Sarnos: A Life in Dirty Movies
as Self
2013
5.9
Frankenstein: A Modern Myth
as Self - Director
2012
7.0
Excision
as William
2012
6.2
Mansome
as Self
2012
4.9
Finding Your Roots
as Self
2012
6.6
The Advocate for Fagdom
as Self
2011
5.3
Blank City
as Self
2011
7.1
Mangus!
as Jesus Christ
2011
1.0
These Amazing Shadows
as Self
2011
7.4
William S. Burroughs: A Man Within
as Self
2010
6.5
Fish Hooks
as The Yeti Lobster (voice)
2010
6.5
Fish Hooks
as Ezekiel Freshwater / Hair Man (voice)
2010
6.5
Offspring
2010
6.9
Herschell Gordon Lewis: The Godfather of Gore
2010
6.0
Beautiful Darling
as Self
2010
5.7
It Came from Kuchar
as Self
2009
7.0
Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen
as Self - Guest
2009
5.1
For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism
as Self
2009
5.7
RuPaul's Drag Race
as Self - Guest Judge
2009
7.5
RuPaul's Drag Race
as Self - Special Guest
2009
7.5
The Wild World of Ted V. Mikels
as Narrator
2008
6.0
Obscene: A Portrait of Barney Rosset and Grove Press
as Self
2008
4.4
🎬
Starz Inside: In the Gutter
as Self
2008
4.5
New Line Cinema: The First Generation and the Next Generation
as Self
2008
10.0
Coven of the Heathenites
as Self
2008
0.0
365 Day Project
2007
10.0
Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story
as Self
2007
7.8
The Junior Defenders
as Narrator
2007
3.0
Jessica the Hippo
as Narrator (Voice)
2007
0.0
Indie Sex
as Self
2007
5.1
Hairspray
as Flasher
2007
6.7
Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
as Self
2007
6.6
Each Time I Kill
as Movie Watcher
2007
5.5
'Til Death Do Us Part
2007
6.5
The Graham Norton Show
as Self
2007
7.2
Here’s Looking at You, Boy
as Self
2007
4.8
This Filthy World
as Self
2006
7.6
🎬
Treasures Untold: The Making of Disney's 'The Little Mermaid'
as Self
2006
0.0
Jackass Number Two
as Self
2006
6.6
🎬
The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players: Off & On Broadway
as Self
2006
0.0
I Love the '70s: Volume 2
as Self
2006
0.0
Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream
as Self
2006
6.3
Mommie Dearest: Joan Lives On
2006
0.0
The Henry Rollins Show
2006
6.0
🎬
Busby Berkeley's Kaleidoscopic Eyes
2006
0.0
(buz'be bur'kle) n. A Study in Style
as Self
2006
7.5
42nd Street: From Book to Screen to Stage
as Self
2006
6.0
Footlight Parade: Music for the Decades
2006
0.0
Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea
as Self - Narrator (voice)
2006
6.6
Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema
as Self
2006
5.4
This Film Is Not Yet Rated
as Self - Director of 'A Dirty Shame'
2006
7.1
That Man: Peter Berlin
as Self
2006
6.2
I, of the Cyclops
2006
0.0
Meet The Kuchar Brothers
2006
0.0
My Name Is Earl
as Walter Hamerick
2005
7.7
It Came from... Baltimore!!
as Self
2005
7.2
All the Dirt on 'A Dirty Shame'
as Self
2005
7.4
Inside Deep Throat
as Self
2005
6.4
Seed of Chucky
as Pete Peters
2004
5.5
Thinking XXX
as Self
2004
5.4
Closer Than That: A Documentary on Low
as Himself
2004
0.0
Abby Singer
as John Waters (uncredited)
2003
6.3
Real Time with Bill Maher
as Self
2003
6.0
A History of Sex
as Self
2003
5.3
🎬
Sylvester: Mighty Real
as Self
2002
0.0
Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat
as The Reverend
2002
4.7
The Cockettes
as Self
2002
6.5
Memories of Oz
as Self
2001
6.8
Welcome to Hollywood
as John Waters
2000
3.8
Pie in the Sky: The Brigid Berlin Story
as Self
2000
6.0
Cecil B. Demented
as Reporter
2000
6.4
Divine Trash
as Self
2000
7.2
Sweet and Lowdown
as Mr. Haynes
1999
6.8
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
as Pornmonger Man
1999
7.9
In Bad Taste
as Self
1999
8.0
Yesterday's Tomorrows
as Self
1999
10.0
Forever Hollywood
as Self
1999
8.0
Pecker
as Pervert on Phone (voice) (uncredited)
1998
6.1
So Graham Norton
as Self - Guest
1998
6.3
Anarchy TV
1998
4.8
Anthem
as Self
1997
5.0
E! True Hollywood Story
1996
8.1
Ballyhoo: The Hollywood Sideshow!
1996
0.0
The Daily Show
as Self
1996
6.4
God Save the Queens
1995
0.0
Family Album
as Vincent
1994
3.9
Serial Mom
as Ted Bundy (voice) (uncredited)
1994
6.7
Frasier
as Roger (voice)
1993
7.7
Homicide: Life on the Street
as R. Vincent Smith
1993
8.1
Growing Up with John Waters
as Self
1993
0.0
HBO First Look
1992
4.9
Gastronomic Getaway
1991
8.0
The Simpsons
as John (voice)
1989
8.0
Homer and Eddie
as Robber #1
1989
5.5
The Incredibly Strange Film Show
as Self
1988
10.0
Hairspray
as Dr. Fredrickson
1988
6.8
Way USA!
1988
0.0
21 Jump Street
as Mr. Bean
1987
7.2
Something Wild
as Used Car Guy
1986
6.6
The Ballad of Sexual Dependency
1985
0.0
Divine Waters
as Self
1985
7.2
Edith's Shopping Bag
as Self
1976
6.0
Saturday Night Live
as Self - Cameo (uncredited)
1975
7.0
Love Letter to Edie
as Self
1975
6.4
Pink Flamingos
as Mr. J (voice) (uncredited)
1972
6.2
Mondo Trasho
as Reporter (voice) (uncredited)
1969
5.1
Tony Awards
as Self - Presenter
1956
5.9
🎬
My Life with the Waters
as Self
N/A
0.0
🎬
Kevin
as Armando (Voice)
N/A
0.0
🎬
Baltigore
as The Broker
N/A
0.0
The Brandon Novak Story
as Self
N/A
0.0
Mary Woronov: Cult Queen
as Self
N/A
0.0