A writer, director, actor and singer whose best-known role found him rocking the mike in fishnets, John Cameron Mitchell was born April 21, 1963, in El Paso, Texas. He spent his childhood on military bases in Germany and Scotland thanks to his father's ties to the U.S. Army.

Mitchell studied theater at Northwestern University and made his Broadway debut in the musical "Big River" (1985), followed by outstanding turns in "The Secret Garden" (1991) and "Hello Again" (1994). But it was his glam-rock brainchild "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" (1998) that put him on the map as an edgier artist, first with his show-stopping performance in the stage musical and then with the Golden Globe-nominated film adaptation (which also marked his directorial debut).

Mitchell later earned directing raves for Rabbit Hole (2010), an emotionally wrenching drama based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning play.