Name
John Cameron Mitchell
Known For
Acting
Birthday
1963-04-21 (63 years old)
Place of Birth
El Paso, Texas, USA
Biography
American writer, director, actor. Mitchell, the son of a U.S. Army general and a Scottish mother, grew up on various army bases, including Berlin; later the family lived in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he attended a Catholic school.
Since the mid-1980s, he has worked as a theatre actor and director in New York City and played small roles in television and film productions. Among other things, he directed a play by Tennessee Williams. From 1991, he appeared in the original Broadway production of Marsha Norman and Lucy Simon's musical adaptation of The Secret Garden, which won several Tony Awards.
In the early 1990s, together with musician Stephen Trask, he developed the character of Hedwig, a transgender rock musician who grew up in East Berlin, for performances in the New York drag bar Squeezebox. This led to the successful Off-Broadway musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch in 1998, which won two Obie Awards, and three years later to the film version of the musical, again with himself in the title role. The film premiered at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Director's and Audience Awards, and the play won the 2001 Lambda Literary Award. At the 2002 Chlotrudis Awards, he won the prize for best leading actor. At the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) in 2001, the film was shown in the ‘PANORAMA’ section and won the Teddy Award.
In 2003, he produced the film Tarnation by Jonathan Caouette, which was honoured as best documentary film by the US National Society of Film Critics, among others. In 2004, Mitchell shot the music video for the Scissor Sisters' single Filthy/Gorgeous with stars from the New York drag scene. The clip was not shown on American MTV due to its explicit sexual depictions.
Known For
6.642
Life for a happy couple is turned upside down after their young son dies in an accident....
7.444
Raised a boy in East Berlin, Hedwig undergoes a personal transformation in order to emigra...
6.457
The definitive documentary on the history of nudity in feature films from the early silent...
6.2
An Indian Vietnam veteran trains five street punks in the Everglades to fight vice in Miam...
5.474
John Twiller takes down his high school yearbook and begins to reminiscence about that tim...
6.571
In the late '90s, Chester and Sonny are a long-term, committed, romantic couple. When Sonn...
- 1986 Band of the Hand as J.L.
- 2001 Hedwig and the Angry Inch as Hedwig
- 1986 One More Saturday Night as Teenager #2
- 1990 Book of Love as Floyd
- 2023 AngelHeaded Hipster: The Songs of Marc Bolan & T. Rex as Self
- 2003 Whether You Like It or Not: The Story of Hedwig as Self
- 2021 John Cameron Mitchell & Stephen Trask: Nation of One as John Cameron Mitchell
- 1998 Hedwig and the Angry Inch as Hedwig Robinson/Tommy Gnosis
- 2007 Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer as Himself
- 2003 Lance Loud!: A Death in An American Family as Self (uncredited)
- 2022 Impresario
- 2014 The Hooping Life as Himself
- 2003 Totally Gay! as Self
- 2023 Nicole Kidman: Eyes Wide Open as Self (interview)
- 1988 A Friendship in Vienna as Tommi Lowberg
- 1989 Misplaced as Jacek
- 1993 Daybreak as Lennie
- 2020 Skin: A History of Nudity in the Movies as Self
- Soon Broadway: The Next Generation as Self
- 2006 Apparition of the Eternal Church as Self
- 2006 Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema as Self
- 2016 My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea as Brent Daniels (voice)
- Soon Heaven Above Rowen as Promise (voice)
- 2007 Gifted and Challenged: The Making of 'Shortbus' as Himself
- 1987 The Stepford Children as Kenny
- 1997 David Searching as Man with Fruit
- 1984 The Roommate as Calvin Fitch
- 1999 I Remember as Joe
- 2017 How to Talk to Girls at Parties as Punk (uncredited)
- 1996 Girl 6 as Rob
- 2015 Danny Says as Self
- 2006 Shortbus as Sextra (one of the participants in the orgy sequence)
- 2015 Larry Kramer In Love & Anger as Himself
- 2019 The Spark: The Origins of Pride as Self
- 2020 Time Warp Vol. 3: Comedy and Camp as Self
- 1990 The Dreamer of Oz as Albert
- 2025 Lisbon
- Soon Ron Forever as Ron
- 2025 Reclaim the Flag as Self
- 2026 Cockroach as James
- 2006 Follow My Voice: With the Music of Hedwig as Self
- 2025 Everybody Wants to Be Gen X as Self
- 2022 I Am More
- 1985 MacGyver ( 1 episode ) as Aaron
- 1988 Freddy's Nightmares ( 1 episode ) as Bryan Ross
- 2022 Joe vs Carole ( 8 episodes ) as Joe 'Exotic' Schreibvogel
- 1996 Party Girl ( 6 episodes ) as Derrick
- 2022 Dr. Jackie ( 1 episode ) as John Cameron Mitchell
- 2021 Yellowjackets ( 1 episode ) as Caligula
- 2012 Girls ( 5 episodes ) as David Pressler-Goings
- 2005 The House of Venus Show ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 2016 Vinyl ( 3 episodes ) as Andy Warhol
- 2017 The Good Fight ( 5 episodes ) as Felix Staples
- 2023 City on Fire ( 8 episodes ) as Amory
- 1990 Law & Order ( 1 episode ) as Eddie
- 2007 Indie Sex ( 2 episodes ) as Self
- 2019 Shrill ( 22 episodes ) as Gabe
- 2022 The Sandman ( 3 episodes ) as Hal Carter
- 2014 Mozart in the Jungle ( 5 episodes ) as Egon
- 1985 The Equalizer ( 1 episode ) as Ed Donahue
- 1985 The Twilight Zone ( 1 episode ) as Tom (segment "The Last Defender of Camelot")
- 2014 Late Night with Seth Meyers ( 1 episode ) as Self - Guest
- 2020 Time Warp: The Greatest Cult Films of All Time ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 1982 American Playhouse ( 1 episode ) as Calvin Fitch
- 1982 American Playhouse ( 1 episode ) as 1st Android (segment 'Teach 109')
- 1982 American Playhouse ( 1 episode ) as Jacek Nowak
