John Cameron Mitchell Biography

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John Cameron Mitchell (born April 21, 1963) is an American actor, writer, and director, best known for originating the title role in the musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and reprising it in the 2001 film adaptation directed by him, as well as for directing the films Shortbus (2006) and Rabbit Hole (2010).

Early years

Mitchell was born in El Paso, Texas. His father was a U.S. Army major general, and Mitchell grew up on army bases in the U.S., Germany, and Scotland, attending Catholic schools, including St. Xavier High School (Junction City, Kansas) and St. Pius X High School (Albuquerque, New Mexico), graduating from the latter in 1981. His mother is a native of Glasgow, Scotland, who immigrated to the United States as a young schoolteacher. His brother Colin is also an actor, writer, and filmmaker.

His first stage role was the Virgin Mary in a Nativity musical staged at a Scottish Benedictine boys boarding school when he was 11 years old. He studied theater at Northwestern University from 1981 to 1985.

Career

Mitchell's first professional stage role was Huckleberry Finn in a 1985 Organic Theater adaptation at Chicago's Goodman Theatre. His first New York acting role was Huck Finn in the Broadway musical Big River (1985). 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. He received Drama Desk nominations for both roles, and can be heard on the original cast recordings for each.

He appeared in the original cast of John Guare's Six Degrees of Separation (both off-Broadway 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 and a Drama Desk nomination.

Mitchell's early television work includes guest-starring roles in Daybreak, MacGyver, Head of the Class, Law & Order, The New 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 for "Sydney", an animated kangaroo that appeared in commercials for Dunk-a-roos cookies.

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.

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 an East German rock musician chasing after an ex-lover who plagiarized her songs.

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. His performance was nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy. Both the play and the film were critical hits and have spawned cult followings around the world.

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 performance in the role of Hedwig on Broadway for a limited run in early 2015, opposite Lena Hall as Yitzhak. He received a 2015 Special Tony Award for his return to the role.

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". After three years of talent searches, improv workshops and production, Shortbus premiered in May 2006 at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. The film garnered many awards, at venues such as the Athens, Gijn 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. 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) and the Scissor Sisters' "Filthy/Gorgeous"; the latter was banned from MTV Europe for its explicitly sexual content. In 2012, Mitchell wrote and produced a narrative short film for Sigur Rs titled "Seraph", directed by animator Dash Shaw (link to film:).

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 entitled "Insurrection".

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). He contributed vocals to English and German covers of Bowie's song, Heroes.

He appeared as a recurring character, e-book editor David Pressler-Goings, on the 2013 and 2014 seasons of HBO series Girls, and as Andy Warhol in the 2016 season of HBO's Vinyl. Mitchell appeared in the 2016 documentary Danny Says alongside Danny Fields, Alice Cooper & Iggy Pop. He has appeared as a character based on Milo Yiannopoulos on CBS All Access's The Good Fight opposite Christine Baranski and appears as the character of Egon in Season 4 of Amazon Studios' Mozart in the Jungle opposite Gael Garcia Bernal. In 2015 he directed an unaired pilot of Showtime series Happyish starring Philip Seymour Hoffman in his last role. John's film How to Talk to Girls at Parties, a screen adaptation of Neil Gaiman's punk-era short story of the same title starring Elle Fanning, Alex Sharp and Nicole Kidman was released by A24 in Spring 2018.

Personal life

In 1985, Mitchell came out as gay to his family and friends. He came out publicly in a New York Times profile in 1992. His subsequent writing has often explored sexuality and gender. He is a Radical Faerie, which was influential in Mitchell's 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".

Mitchell lives in New York City.

Filmography

As director

Year	Title	Notes
2001	Hedwig and the Angry Inch
2006	Shortbus
2010	Rabbit Hole
2011	Lady Grey London	Short film
2011	L.A.dy Dior	Short film
2013	Nurse Jackie	Episode: "Luck of the Drawing"
2013	Control Yourself.	Short film
2015	Happyish	Unaired Pilot
2017	How to Talk to Girls at Parties
2018	GLOW	Episode: "Mother of All Matches"; Co-director with Mark A. Burkley

As actor

Year	Title	Roles	Notes
1984	American Playhouse	Calvin Fitch	Episode: "The Roommate"
1986	The Equalizer	Ed Donahue	Episode: "Unpunished Crimes"
1986	Band of the Hand	J.L.
1986	The Twilight Zone	Tom	Episode: "A Day in Beaumont/The Last Defender of Camelot" (segment "The Last Defender of Camelot")
1986	One More Saturday Night	Teenager #2
1986	ABC Afterschool Specials	Friend at bus stop	Episode: "A Desperate Exit"
1987	The Stepford Children	Kenny	TV film
1987	MacGyver	Aaron	Episode: "Hell Week"
1987-1990	Head of the Class	Manfred	Episodes: "That'll Be the Day" and "From Hair to Eternity: Part 2"
1988	Higher Education	Student #1	(as John Mitchell)
1988	Our House	Willie Gillis	Episode: "Out of Step"
1988	A Friendship in Vienna	Tommi Lowberg	TV Film
1988	Freddy's Nightmares: A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Series	Bryan Ross	Episode: "It's a Miserable Life"
1989	No Holds Barred	Man in Audience	(uncredited)
1989	Misplaced	Jacek
1990	Book of Love	Floyd
1990	The Dreamer of Oz: The L. Frank Baum Story	Albert the Reporter	TV Film
1990	Teach 109	1st Android	TV Short
1990	Daybreak	Lennie	TV Film
1993	Class of '96	Horace	Episode: "See You in September"
1993	Law & Order	Eddie	Episode: "Pride"
1995	Girl 6	Rob
1996	Party Girl	Derrick	4 episodes
1996	David Searching	Man with Fruit
1997	Nothing Sacred	Matt Evans	Episode: "Speaking in Tongues"
1999	I Remember	Joe	Short film
2001	Hedwig and the Angry Inch	Hedwig
2006	Shortbus	Sextra	(uncredited)
2013-2014	Girls	David Pressler-Goings	5 episodes
2016	Vinyl	Andy Warhol	3 episodes
2016	My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea	Brent Daniels	(voice)
2017	The Good Fight	Felix Staples	2 episodes
2018	Mozart in the Jungle	Egon	4 episodes

See also

• Dramatic license
• LGBT culture in New York City