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.

Filmography

• 2026Gays Against Guns
• Kevin — Armando (voice)
• 2026Vincent Price: What Keeps Us Alive
• 2025Marisa y Gomoso — Thanks
• 2025Room Temperature — Thanks
• 2025Sarah Squirm: Live + in the Flesh — Stage Manager
• 2024As Time Goes By
• Digman! — Magnus (voice)
• 2023Lynch/Oz — Host (Chapter 3: 'Kindred') (voice)
• Charles Band’s Full Moon Freakshow
• Chucky — Wendell Wilkins
• Helluva Boss — Rolando (voice)
• 2020Joel Calls Indie Film Type Dudes
• 2020Time Warp Vol. 1: Midnight Madness — Host
• 2020Time Warp Vol. 2: Horror and Sci-Fi — Host
• 2020Time Warp Vol. 3: Comedy and Camp — Host
• 201930/30 Vision: Three Decades of Strand Releasing — Self, Director
• 2019Permanent Green Light — Thanks
• 2019Sniffing Out ‘Polyester’ — Self, Thanks
• 2018Crime and Beauty: Making ‘Female Trouble’
• Explained — Narrator (voice)
• 2018Female Trouble: On-Set Footage
• Liverspots and Astronots — O-Dor
• 2018Mugworth — Sir Butler
• FEUD — William Castle
• 2016Hairspray Live! — Associate Producer, Original Story
• Search Party — Sheffield
• 2016Wall Writers — Narrator (voice)
• 2015Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip — First Class Passenger
• 2015Kiddie Flamingos — Director, Writer
• 2015The 1000 Eyes of Dr Maddin
• Clarence — Captain Tom (voice)
• 2014Suburban Gothic — Cornelius
• The Blacklist — John Waters
• 2012Excision — William
• American Horror Story — Mr. Phibes
• 2011Mangus! — Jesus Christ
• Fish Hooks — The Yeti Lobster (voice), Ezekiel Freshwater / Hair Man (voice)
• 2010Herschell Gordon Lewis: The Godfather of Gore
• 2010Putty Hill — Thanks
• 2008The Wild World of Ted V. Mikels — Narrator
• 'Til Death Do Us Part
• 2007An American Crime — Thanks
• 2007Each Time I Kill — Movie Watcher
• 2007Hairspray — Flasher, Original Film Writer
• 2007Jessica the Hippo — Narrator (Voice)
• 2007The Junior Defenders — Narrator
• 2006Busby Berkeley's Kaleidoscopic Eyes
• 2006Footlight Parade: Music for the Decades
• 2006I, of the Cyclops
• 2006Meet The Kuchar Brothers
• 2006Mommie Dearest: Joan Lives On
• The Henry Rollins Show
• 2006This Filthy World — Self, Screenplay
• My Name Is Earl — Walter Hamerick
• 2004A Dirty Shame — Director, Writer
• 2004Seed of Chucky — Pete Peters
• 2003Abby Singer — John Waters (uncredited)
• 2002Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat — The Reverend
• 2000Cecil B. Demented — Reporter, Director, Writer
• 2000Welcome to Hollywood — John Waters
• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit — Pornmonger Man
• 1999Sweet and Lowdown — Mr. Haynes
• 1998Anarchy TV
• 1998Pecker — Pervert on Phone (voice) (uncredited), Director, Screenplay
• 1998Whipped — Thanks
• 1996Ballyhoo: The Hollywood Sideshow!
• E! True Hollywood Story
• 1995God Save the Queens
• Family Album — Vincent
• 1994Serial Mom — Ted Bundy (voice) (uncredited), Director, Writer
• Eurotrash
• Frasier — Roger (voice)
• Homicide: Life on the Street — R. Vincent Smith
• 1993The Big Wet — Narrator
• HBO First Look
• 1991Gastronomic Getaway
• 1991Poison — Thanks
• 1990Cry-Baby — Director, Writer
• The Word
• 1989Homer and Eddie — Robber #1
• The Simpsons — John (voice)
• 1988Hairspray — Dr. Fredrickson, Director, Co-Producer, Writer
• 1988Way USA!
• 21 Jump Street — Mr. Bean
• 1986Something Wild — Used Car Guy
• 1985The Ballad of Sexual Dependency
• 1982Nuart Theatre No Smoking PSA — Self, Director
• 1981Polyester — Director, Producer, Writer
• 1977Desperate Living — Director, Writer, Additional Photography, Producer
• 1976Female Trouble — Director, Producer, Director of Photography, Editor, Writer
• 1972Pink Flamingos — Mr. J (narration) (uncredited), Director, Producer, Director of Photography, Editor, Writer
• 1970Multiple Maniacs — Original Music Composer, Director, Writer, Producer, Director of Photography, Editor
• 1970The Diane Linkletter Story — Editor, Producer, Director, Director of Photography, Writer
• 1969Mondo Trasho — Reporter (voice) (uncredited), Original Music Composer, Editor, Director of Photography, Producer, Writer
• 1968Dorothy, the Kansas City Pot Head — Director, Writer
• 1968Eat Your Makeup — Director, Writer, Producer, Director of Photography, Editor
• 1967Roman Candles — Director, Writer, Producer, Director of Photography, Editor
• 1964Hag in a Black Leather Jacket — Director, Writer, Producer, Director of Photography, Editor
• Baltigore — The Broker
• Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance — Director
• Mamie Exposed! The Life and Loves of the Last Blonde Bombshell

Appearances as themselves (112)

• 2026Eddie Cochran: Don't Forget Me — Self
• 2026Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World — Self
• 2026Return to Mortville — Self
• 2025A Summer with Joe, Liz and Richard — Self
• Everybody's Live with John Mulaney — Self - Writer and Film Director
• 2025It's Dorothy! — Self
• 2025TURA! — Self
• 2025Velvet Vision: The Story of James Bidgood and the Making of Pink Narcissus — Self
• 2024Doc of Chucky — Self
• 2024Scala!!! — Self
• 2023Little Richard: I Am Everything — Self
• 2022Don't Fall in Love with Yourself — Self (Archival)
• 2022Fragments of Paradise — Self
• 2022Living with Chucky — Self
• 2022Tell Me Iggy — Self
• The Andy Warhol Diaries — Self
• 2022The Book of Harth — Self
• 2021Blood, Guts and Sunshine: The History of Horror Made in Florida — Self [archival]
• 2021My Life with the Waters — Self
• Pride — Self
• 2021The Velvet Underground — Self
• 2020The Mystery of the Pink Flamingo — Himself
• Time Warp: The Greatest Cult Films of All Time — Self - Host
• 2019At the Video Store — Self
• 2019Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn — Self
• 2018Sickies Making Films — Self
• 2017Mansfield 66/67 — Self
• 2017Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution — Self
• 2016In Conversation With Director John Waters, Actress Kathleen Turner and Actress Mink Stole — Self
• The New Yorker Presents — Self
• 2016Whatever Happened to Gelitin — Self
• 2015Seed Money: The Chuck Holmes Story — Self
• 2015Sympathy for the Devil: The True Story of The Process Church of the Final Judgment — Self
• 2015Tab Hunter Confidential — Self
• The Late Show with Stephen Colbert — Self - Guest
• HitRECord on TV with Joseph Gordon-Levitt — Self
• 2014I Am Divine — Self
• Late Night with Seth Meyers — Self - Guest
• 2014The Last Impresario — Self
• 2013Jingle Bell Rocks! — Self
• 2013Paul Bowles: The Cage Door Is Always Open — Self
• RuPaul Drives... — Self - Guest
• 2013The Sarnos: A Life in Dirty Movies — Self
• Finding Your Roots — Self
• 2012Frankenstein: A Modern Myth — Self - Director
• 2012Mansome — Self
• 2011Blank City — Self
• 2011The Advocate for Fagdom — Self
• 2011These Amazing Shadows — Self
• 2010Beautiful Darling — Self
• 2010The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special - In 3D! On Ice! — Self
• 2010William S. Burroughs: A Man Within — Self
• 2009For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism — Self
• 2009It Came from Kuchar — Self
• RuPaul's Drag Race — Self - Guest Judge, Self - Special Guest
• Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen — Self - Guest
• 2008Coven of the Heathenites — Self
• 2008New Line Cinema: The First Generation and the Next Generation — Self
• 2008Obscene: A Portrait of Barney Rosset and Grove Press — Self
• 2008Starz Inside: In the Gutter — Self
• 2007365 Day Project — Self
• 2007Here’s Looking at You, Boy — Self
• Indie Sex — Self
• 2007Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis — Self
• 2007Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story — Self
• The Graham Norton Show — Self - Guest
• 2007The Roots of 'Hairspray' — Self
• 2007You Can’t Stop the Beat: The Long Journey of "Hairspray" — Self
• 2006(buz'be bur'kle) n. A Study in Style — Self
• 200642nd Street: From Book to Screen to Stage — Self
• 2006Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema — Self
• I Love the '70s: Volume 2 — Self
• 2006Jackass Number Two — Self
• 2006Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream — Self
• 2006Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea — Self - Narrator (voice)
• 2006That Man: Peter Berlin — Self
• 2006The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players: Off & On Broadway — Self
• 2006This Film Is Not Yet Rated — Self - Director of 'A Dirty Shame'
• 2006Treasures Untold: The Making of Disney's 'The Little Mermaid' — Self
• 2005All the Dirt on 'A Dirty Shame' — Self
• 2005Inside Deep Throat — Self
• 2005It Came from... Baltimore!! — Self
• The Colbert Report — Self - Guest
• 2004Closer Than That: A Documentary on Low — Himself
• 2004Thinking XXX — Self
• 2003A History of Sex — Self
• Real Time with Bill Maher — Self - Guest
• 2002Sylvester: Mighty Real — Self
• 2002The Cockettes — Self
• 2001Memories of Oz — Self
• 2000Divine Trash — Self
• 2000Pie in the Sky: The Brigid Berlin Story — Self
• 1999Forever Hollywood — Self
• 1999In Bad Taste — Self
• 1999Yesterday's Tomorrows — Self
• So Graham Norton — Self - Guest
• The Roseanne Show — Self - Guest
• 1997Anthem — Self
• The View — Self
• The Daily Show — Self - Guest
• 1993Growing Up with John Waters — Self
• Late Show with David Letterman — Self - Guest
• The Incredibly Strange Film Show — Self
• 1985Divine Waters — Self
• Late Night with David Letterman — Self - Guest
• 1976Edith's Shopping Bag — Self
• 1975Love Letter to Edie — Self
• Saturday Night Live — Self (uncredited)
• Tony Awards — Self - Presenter
• Mary Woronov: Cult Queen — Self
• New Line: Independent Legacies — Self
• The Brandon Novak Story — Self