John Cameron Mitchell grew up all over the US and Europe as the son of an American Army general and a Scottish painter/teacher. He has been directing, writing and performing for stage, screen, television and podcast for over 40 years. He studied theater with Frank Galati at Northwestern University (1981-5) and subsequently co-wrote the musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch that Rolling Stone called “the best rock musical ever,” and for which he won a 1998 Village Voice Obie Award, the 2014 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical and a 2015 Special Tony for his performance. He wrote/directed/starred in the film adaptation which the New York Times called one of the “Top Ten Films of 2001” and for which he won the Best Director and Audience Awards at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival and a 2001 Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy and 17 other awards. John wrote and directed the 2006 sexually frank, improv-based film Shortbus which premiered in Cannes’ Official Selection and won multiple festival awards as well as a nom for Best Ensemble from the Gotham Awards. His 2010 film Rabbit Hole, adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, gained him a Best Director nom at the Independent Spirits, and a Best Actress Oscar nom for Nicole Kidman. He directed and co-wrote the YA punk romance film How to Talk to Girls at Parties (2017) starring Elle Fanning and Nicole Kidman. He executive-produced (with Gus Van Sant) Jonathan Caouette’s Tarnation (2004) which won Best Documentary from the National Society of Film Critics. John is a founding member of the Drama Department Theater Company for which he adapted and directed Tennessee Williams’ Kingdom of Earth starring Cynthia Nixon and Peter Sarsgaard. Other Broadway acting credits include the original casts of The Secret Garden (Drama Desk nom), Six Degrees of Separation and Big River. Off Broadway: The Destiny of Me by Larry Kramer (1993 Obie Award for Best Actor, Drama Desk nom), and Lincoln Center’s Hello Again (Drama Desk nom). Film acting work includes: Spike Lee’s Girl Six, Michael Mann’s Band of the Hand, Book of Love, Misplaced. TV roles: Girls, The Sandman, Shrill, The Good Fight, Yellowjackets, Mozart in the Jungle, Vinyl, MacGyver, Head of the Class, The Equalizer, The Twilight Zone, The Stepford Children and as a series regular in Party Girl, City on Fire, and as Joe Exotic in Joe Vs Carole. He wrote and directed two fictional podcast series: the autobiographic musical Anthem: Homunculus (2019) called “a hallucinatory masterpiece” by Rolling Stone, starring himself, Glenn Close, Cynthia Erivo, Patti Lupone and Laurie Anderson; and Cancellation Island starring Holly Hunter. He is a DJ/founder of the long-running Mattachine Dance Party and released the collaborative music albums New American Dream Pts. 1&2, and Turning Time Around. He remains active on the concert circuit with The Origin of Love - The Songs and Stories of Hedwig, Cassette Roulette, Blackstar Symphony and Queen Bitch - John Cameron Mitchell Sings Bowie. John is a former fellow of the Sundance Institute Filmmaker Labs and has represented the Institute as a screenwriting advisor in Brazil and Peru. He received the 2007 Dorothy Hirshon Award for Cinematic Achievement from New School University and the 2019 Excellence in Acting Award from the Provincetown Film Festival. For his work on gay/trans rights he received the New York State Senate Democrats’ 2004 Special Human Rights Award. He is presently working on LSM, his new play about artist Claude Cahun and two biopics (about Allen Ginsberg and AIDS activist Peter Staley), as well as teaching “Problemagic Cinema,” a film course at University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.
