John Waters, born in Baltimore in 1946, is an American director, writer, and visual artist universally revered as the "Pope of Trash." A key figure in counter-culture and underground cinema, Waters built his legend by deliberately challenging bourgeois "good taste." Working with his company of fetish actors, the Dreamlanders, and his muse, the drag queen Divine, he shocked 1970s audiences with provocative "trash" films like Pink Flamingos (1972), Female Trouble (1974), and Polyester (1981), which celebrate deviance and the grotesque aesthetic. In the 1980s, he achieved broader mainstream success while maintaining his eccentric satire with cult classics like Hairspray (1988), which later became a Broadway musical, and Cry-Baby (1990) starring Johnny Depp. Beyond film, he is a prolific author and an acclaimed performer of one-man shows, solidifying his status as a unique cultural icon.