John Cameron Mitchell

At 61 years old, John Cameron Mitchell has this physical status:

John Cameron Mitchell (born April 21, 1963) is an American actor, playwright, screenwriter, and director.

Early years

Mitchell was born in El Paso, Texas and was raised on a variety of military bases in Kansas, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Germany. His father, John Henderson Mitchell, was a U.S. Army major general and the U.S. Commander of West Berlin from 1984 to 1988. His mother, Joan Cameron Mitchell, a native of Glasgow, Scotland, immigrated to the United States at a young age to become an art teacher. He had an older brother who died at birth and three younger brothers: Christopher Lloyd, Colin Mackenzie, and Samuel Latham, the last of whom died in 1977 when Mitchell was in eighth grade. He was raised devoutly Roman Catholic and he attended Catholic schools in both Scotland and the U.S., 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 when Mitchell was 11-years-old. He studied theater at Northwestern University from 1981 to 1985, but did not graduate.

Personal life

In 1985, at the age of 22, Mitchell came out as gay to his family and friends. He came out publicly in a 1992 New York Times profile. His subsequent writing has often explored sexuality and gender. He is a Radical Faerie. Mitchell's experiences with the group influenced the making of Shortbus. 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. In 2022, he came out as non-binary. Mitchell explained in an interview that as well as coming out as nonbinary he continues to use he/him pronouns.

Mitchell currently lives in Manhattan.

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Career

In 1985's Organic Theatre revival at Chicago's Goodman Theatre, Mitchell's first professional stage appearance was Huckleberry Finn. Huck Finn was his first New York actor to appear in the Broadway musical Big River (1985). He starred in The Secret Garden on Broadway and appeared in the original cast of the off-Broadway musical Hello Again. He has been nominated for both roles by Drama Desk and is able to be seen on both roles' original cast recordings for each.

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

Mitchell's early television appearances include guest appearances in Daybreak, MacGyver, The Chief of the Class, Law and Order, Freddy's Nightmares, The Dreamer of Oz, The Dreamer of Oz, and The Stepford Children. He appeared on the 1996 Fox sitcom Party Girl as the animated kangaroo mascot of Dunkaroos snack cookies.

Mitchell had a single line ("Delivery!")

Mitchell wrote (along with composer Stephen Trask) and appeared 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 in 1998.

He produced and appeared in the film version of the play, which earned him the Best Director award at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival three years later. Mitchell's performance was nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy. Both the play and film were critical hits and have spawned cult followers around the world.

Hedwig's 2014 Broadway revival of a Musical starred Neil Patrick Harris and Lena Hall, who received 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 role as Hedwig on Broadway for a limited run in early 2015, opposite Lena Hall as Yitzhak. For his return to the role, he was given a 2015 Special Tony Award.

Mitchell expressed an interest in writing, directing, and directing a film that included explicit sex in a naturalistic and thoughtful way, without using "stars." Shortbus debuted in May 2006 at the Cannes Film Festival after three years of talent hunts, improvisational lectures, and production. Multiple awards were given to the film at festivals such as Athens, Gijon, and Zurich International Film Festivals.

Nicole Kidman (in an Oscar-nominated role) and Aaron Eckhart starred in a David Lindsay-Abaire-winning film about a family struggling with the death of their four-year-old son. Mitchell, who was involved in the death of his four-year-old brother as a child, became involved in steering the project out of a personal connection to the tale. At the Toronto Film Festival, the film premiered.

Mitchell was the executive producer of the 2004 film Tarnation, a film about Jonathan Caouette's life, whom he encountered while Shortbus was auditioned. Tarnation received the National Society of Film Critics' Best Documentary Award, the Independent Spirit Awards, and the Gotham Award in 2004. Alison Fraser, co-starring Secret Garden and "Filthy/Gorgeous," as he was barred from MTV Europe for specifically sexual content. Mitchell wrote and produced "Seraph," a narrative short film directed by animator Dash Shaw, for Sigur Rós in 2012.

Mitchell has appeared on Politically Incorrect and other VH1 and Independent Film Channel shows. On IFC, he starred films as Escape From Hollywood. He wrote and directed a number of short films and advertisements for Dior, including Lady Grey London and L.A.dy Dior, which also starred Marion Cotillard and Dior Homme Sport, starring Jude Law. "Insurrection" was written and directed by Robert Gore in 2013.

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).

Mitchell appeared in the 2016 season of HBO's Vinyl as a recurring character, e-book editor David Pressler-Goings, on both the 2013 and 2014 seasons of HBO's Girls, as well as as Andy Warhol. Mitchell appeared in Danny Says, Alice Cooper, and Iggy Pop in 2016. In Season 4 of Amazon Studios' Mozart in the Jungle opposite Gael Garca Bernal, he has appeared in a character based on Milo Yiannopoulos on CBS All Access's The Good Fight opposite Christine Baranski and as the character of Egon. In 2014, he produced an unaired pilot of Showtime's Happiest, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman in his last role. How to Talk to Girls at Parties, John's film adaptation of Neil Gaiman's punk-era short story starring Elle Fanning, Alex Sharp, and Nicole Kidman was released by A24 in spring 2018. According to Entertainment Weekly, he produced (with co-director Mark A. Burkley) Netflix's "Mother of All Matches" episode "GLOW Season 2 episode "Mother of All Matches," which was named one of "The Best TV episodes of 2018" by the show.

Mitchell appeared in Hulu's Shrill, which stars Aidy Bryant and is based on Lindy West's memoir of the same name. In 2019, Stephen Trask's latest musical, Patti Lupone, Cynthia Erivo, Denis O'Hare, Nakhane, Lawrence Anderson, Marion Cotillard, Ben Foster, and Madeline Brewer were among his new musical, The Origin of Love: The Songs and Stories of Hedwig starring him, was published as a fictional podcast series starring him, the Luminary Podcast Network, which is available on Luminary Podcast Network. He is a regular cast member of Night Vale Presents' podcast The Orbiting Human Circus (of the Air). Turner Time Around, a collection of Lou Reed covers made by REM's Peter Buck and released by Jealous Butcher Records as a gift to Mitchell's mother's Alzheimer's care.

Mitchell's "distance-defying, community-built benefit album" was released in September 4, 2020, with collaborations with Ezra Furman, Alynda Segarra of Hurray, Raff Raff, Stephen Trask, Jamie Stewart, Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon, Catherine Russell, and Leland's Matthew Russell benefiting from a COVID food bank, a trans justice group, and the Dr. MLK Scholarship Trust Fund.

In 2022, Joe Exotic appeared in Peacock's streaming series version of the Wondery podcast series Joe vs. Carole. "Call Me Joe," featuring Nat Wolff as Joe's husband Travis Maldonado, John cowrote and performed a song from the point of view of the character. Hal Carter, a B&B host and drag queen, appeared in the Netflix version of The Sandman as Hal Carter.

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