John Cameron Mitchell

John Cameron Mitchell (born April 21, 1963) is an American actor, playwright, screenwriter, singer, songwriter, producer and director. He is known as the writer, director and star of the 2001 film Hedwig and the Angry Inch, which is based on the stage musical of the same name. He also co-wrote and starred in the 2019 musical audio series Anthem: Homunculus and portrayed the role of Joe Exotic in the Peacock limited series Joe vs. Carole in 2022.

Quick Facts Born, Education ...

John Cameron Mitchell
Mitchell in October 2004
Born	(1963-04-21) April 21, 1963 (age 62) El Paso, Texas, U.S.
Education	Northwestern Univ. (1981–1985)
Occupation(s)	Actor, playwright, screenwriter, film director
Years active	1983–present
Notable work	Hedwig and the Angry Inch, rock musical and film
Parents	MG John Henderson Mitchell Joan Cameron Mitchell

Early years

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Mitchell was born in El Paso, Texas, the second child of U.S. Army Lieutenant John Henderson Mitchell and Joan Cameron, arriving less than a year after the loss of their first child, James.^[1] He was raised on a variety of military bases—among them Forts Leavenworth and Riley (both in Kansas), Kirkland Air Force Base (New Mexico), Carlisle Barracks (Pennsylvania) and Campbell Barracks (Heidelberg)—as dictated by his father's career that in 1982 saw him promoted to the rank of major general and serving as United States Commander, Berlin (USCOB) from 1984 to 1988, in charge of the American sector of the city.^[2] His mother was a native of Glasgow, Scotland, who immigrated to Montreal at age 20 to become an elementary school teacher, later moving to Chicago and then to Colorado Springs.^[1] A talented artist, she became known for her watercolor portraits of public figures such as actor Kirk Douglas, U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, as well as for religious art she made for the Roman Catholic dioceses of Denver and Colorado Springs.^[1] John had three younger brothers: Christopher Lloyd, Colin Mackenzie, and Samuel Latham Mitchell—who died at age four in 1977.^[3] His grandfather, William Lloyd Mitchell, briefly served as the acting Social Security Commissioner in 1953 under U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower who five years later officially nominated him to the position, which he retained for the duration of John F. Kennedy's presidency as well.

He attended Catholic schools for most of his youth, including St. Xavier High School in Junction City, Kansas, and St. Pius X High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico, graduating from the latter in 1981. Mitchell's first stage role was as the Virgin Mary in a Nativity musical staged at a Scottish Benedictine boys' boarding school, Carlekemp Priory Prep School, when he was 11 years old. Though he studied theater at Northwestern University from 1981 to 1985, he did not graduate.^[4]

Career

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Mitchell's first professional stage role was Huckleberry Finn in a 1985 Organic Theater adaptation at Chicago's Goodman Theatre,^[5] and portrayed the same character in his first New York acting role in the 1985 Broadway musical Big River. He originated the role of Dickon on Broadway in The Secret Garden, and appeared in the original cast of the off-Broadway musical Hello Again, receiving Drama Desk nominations for both roles, and can be heard on the original cast recordings for each.^[4]

He appeared in the original cast of John Guare's Six Degrees of Separation (both off- and on-Broadway), and starred in Larry Kramer's off-Broadway sequel to The Normal Heart, The Destiny of Me, for which he received an Obie Award^[6] and a Drama Desk nomination.^[7]

Mitchell's early television work includes guest-starring roles in Daybreak,^[8] MacGyver,^[9] Head of the Class, Law & Order, The Twilight Zone, Freddy's Nightmares, The Equalizer, Our House, The Dreamer of Oz: The L. Frank Baum Story, and The Stepford Children. He was a regular cast member on the 1996 Fox sitcom Party Girl, and was the long-running voice of Sydney, the animated kangaroo mascot of Dunkaroos snack cookies.^{[citation needed]}

Starring and co-starring film roles include a homicidal new waver in Band of the Hand (1986), a Polish immigrant violinist in Misplaced (1990), and a teen Lothario poet in Book of Love (1990). Mitchell had a single line ("Delivery!") in Spike Lee's Girl Six (1996) as a man auditioning for a pornographic film. Mitchell 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.^[10]

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

In 1998, Mitchell wrote (along with composer Stephen Trask) and starred in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, an Obie Award-winning off-Broadway rock musical about a genderqueer East German rock musician chasing after an ex-lover who plagiarized her songs.^[4]

Three years later, he directed and starred in the feature-film version of the play, for which he won Best Director at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. Mitchell's performance was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy. Both the play and the film were critical hits and have spawned cult followings around the world.^[11]^[12]

The 2014 Broadway production of Hedwig starred Neil Patrick Harris and Lena Hall, was directed by Michael Mayer, and won four Tony Awards, including Best Actor in a Musical (Harris), Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Hall), and Best Revival of a Musical. Mitchell reprised his Hedwig performance during the run and received a 2015 Special Tony Award for his return to the role.^[13]

Shortbus

After the success of Hedwig, Mitchell expressed an interest in writing, directing, and producing a film that incorporated explicit sex in a naturalistic and thoughtful way, without using "stars."^[14] After three years of talent searches, improvisation workshops, and production, Shortbus premiered in May 2006 at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. The film garnered many awards,^[15] at venues such as the Athens, Gijon, and Zurich International Film Festivals.

Rabbit Hole

He directed the 2010 film Rabbit Hole, starring Nicole Kidman (in an Oscar-nominated performance) and Aaron Eckhart, adapted from David Lindsay-Abaire's Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name about a couple dealing with the loss of their four-year-old son. Mitchell became interested in directing the project out of a personal connection to the story, having dealt with the death of his four-year-old brother as a teenager.^[16] The film debuted at the Toronto Film Festival.

Other work

Mitchell was the executive producer of the 2004 film Tarnation, a documentary about the life of Jonathan Caouette, whom he met when the latter auditioned for Shortbus. Tarnation won 2004 Best Documentary from the National Society of Film Critics, the Independent Spirit Awards and the Gotham Awards. He directed videos for Bright Eyes' "First Day of My Life" (featuring Secret Garden co-star Alison Fraser)^[17] and the Scissor Sisters' "Filthy/Gorgeous";^[18] the latter was banned from MTV Europe for its explicitly sexual content. In 2012, Mitchell wrote and produced a narrative short film for Sigur Rós titled "Seraph", directed by animator Dash Shaw.^[19]

Mitchell has appeared as a pundit on Politically Incorrect and various VH1 and Independent Film Channel programs. He introduced films on a show called Escape From Hollywood on IFC for two years. He wrote and directed a number of short films and commercials for Dior including Lady Grey London and L.A.dy Dior both starring Marion Cotillard and Dior Homme Sport, starring Jude Law. In 2013, He wrote and directed a fashion video for Agent Provocateur titled "Insurrection".^[20] In 2016, Mitchell appeared on Amanda Palmer and Jherek Bischoff's tribute album to late musician David Bowie, Amanda Palmer and Jherek Bischoff: Strung Out In Heaven (A David Bowie Tribute).^[21]

Mitchell appeared as David Pressler-Goings in seasons 2 and 3 of the HBO series Girls, and as Andy Warhol in HBO's Vinyl. Mitchell can be seen in the 2016 documentary Danny Says alongside Danny Fields, Alice Cooper and Iggy Pop. He has played a character based on Milo Yiannopoulos on The Good Fight, opposite Christine Baranski, and as the character of Egon in season 4 of the Amazon Studios series Mozart in the Jungle, opposite Gael García Bernal. In 2014, he directed an unaired pilot of the Showtime series Happyish, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman in his final role.

Mitchell's punk era young adult romance film How to Talk to Girls at Parties starring Elle Fanning, Alex Sharp, and Nicole Kidman was released by A24 in Spring 2018.^[22] He co-directed with Mark A. Burkley the episode "Mother of All Matches" of Netflix's GLOW (the 2nd season's 4th episode), which topped Entertainment Weekly's "The best TV episodes of 2018" list.^[23]

Mitchell was a series cast member in Hulu's Shrill, which stars Aidy Bryant and is based on Lindy West's memoir of the same title. In 2019, John released his latest musical, co-written with Bryan Weller, as a fictional podcast series titled Anthem: Homunculus starring himself, Glenn Close, Patti Lupone, Cynthia Erivo, Denis O'Hare, Nakhane, Laurie Anderson, Alan Mandell, Ben Foster, and Madeline Brewer, originally exclusive to the Luminary podcast network.^[24] He was a regular cast member on the podcast The Orbiting Human Circus (of the Air), a co-venture produced by Night Vale Presents and WNYC Studios.^[25] In 2019, John and Portland-based band Eyelids recorded Turning Time Around, an album of Lou Reed covers produced by R.E.M.'s Peter Buck and released by Jealous Butcher Records as a benefit for Mitchell's mother's care during her battle with Alzheimer's.

Mitchell's "distance-defying, community-built benefit album" New American Dream (Parts 1 and 2) was released September 4, 2020, including collaborations with Ezra Furman, Alynda Segarra of Hurray for the Riff Raff, Stephen Trask, Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu, Wynton Marsalis, Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon, Catherine Russell and Leland benefitting a COVID food bank, a trans justice group and the Dr. MLK Scholarship Trust Fund.^[26]

In 2022, he played Joe Exotic in Peacock's streaming series adaptation of the Wondery podcast series Joe vs. Carole. John co-wrote (with Brett Every) and sang a song from the point of view of the character, "Call Me Joe," featuring Nat Wolff as Joe's husband Travis Maldonado. That same year, he appeared in the Netflix series The Sandman as Hal Carter. He plays Amory (the "Demon Brother") on the Apple TV+ series City on Fire. He regularly tours a career retrospective concert with Amber Martin titled Cassette Roulette, a David Bowie-themed show conceived by Donny McCaslin called Black Star Symphony, as well as John's all-David Bowie show Queen Bitch (Bowie was an early investor in the first Hedwig production).^[27] Cancellation Island, a new satirical scripted podcast series he co-wrote with Michael Cavadias starring Holly Hunter—whose character opens a rehab for cancelled people—was released February 9, 2025.

Personal life

In 1985, at the age of 22, Mitchell came out as gay to his family and friends,^[4] then did so publicly in a 1992 New York Times profile.^[5] His subsequent writing has often explored sexuality and gender. He is a Radical Faerie, and his experiences with the group influenced the making of Shortbus.^[28] Along with Shortbus stars PJ DeBoy and Paul Dawson and performance artists Amber Martin and Angela Di Carlo, he is a co-founder and DJ of the long-running New York City monthly party "Mattachine," named after the early American gay rights organization Mattachine Society.^[29] In 2022, he stated he was non-binary,^[30] and continues to use he/him pronouns.^[31]

Mitchell presently splits his home life between Manhattan and New Orleans.^[32]^[33]