Harris Glenn Milstead, better known by the stage name Divine, was an American actor, singer, and drag queen. Closely associated with independent filmmaker John Waters, Divine was a character actor, usually performing female roles in cinematic and theatrical productions, and adopted a female drag persona for his music career.
Pink Flamingos is a 1972 American black comedy film by John Waters. It is part of what Waters has labelled the "Trash Trilogy", which also includes Female Trouble (1974) and Desperate Living (1977). The film stars the countercultural drag queen Divine as a criminal living under the name of Babs Johnson, who is proud to be "the filthiest person alive". While living in a trailer with her mother Edie, son Crackers, and companion Cotton, Divine is confronted by the Marbles, a pair of criminals envious of her reputation who try to outdo her in filth. The characters engage in several grotesque, bizarre, and explicitly crude situations, and upon the film's re-release in 1997 it was rated NC-17 by the MPAA "for a wide range of perversions in explicit detail". It was filmed in the vicinity of Baltimore, Maryland, where Waters and most of the cast and crew grew up.
Parker Christian Posey is an American actress. She was labeled "Queen of the Indies" for her roles in a succession of independent films throughout the 1990s, such as Dazed and Confused (1993), Party Girl, The Doom Generation, Kicking and Screaming, The Daytrippers (1996), The House of Yes, Clockwatchers, and Henry Fool (1998). She is the recipient of nominations for an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Satellite Award, and two Independent Spirit Awards.
John Samuel Waters Jr. is an American filmmaker, writer, actor, and artist. He rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films, including Multiple Maniacs (1970), Pink Flamingos (1972) and Female Trouble (1974). Waters wrote and directed the comedy film Hairspray (1988), which was later adapted into a hit Broadway musical and a 2007 musical film. Other films he has written and directed include Desperate Living (1977), Polyester (1981), Cry-Baby (1990), Serial Mom (1994), Pecker (1998), and Cecil B. Demented (2000). His films contain elements of post-modern comedy and surrealism.
Natasha Bianca Lyonne Braunstein is an American actress, writer, television director, and producer. Known for her distinctive raspy voice and tough persona, the accolades she has received include two Screen Actors Guild Awards, alongside nominations for five Primetime Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Critics' Choice Television Award.
But I'm a Cheerleader is a 1999 American satirical teen romantic comedy film directed by Jamie Babbit in her feature directorial debut and written by Brian Wayne Peterson. Natasha Lyonne stars as Megan Bloomfield, a high school cheerleader whose parents send her to a residential in-patient conversion therapy camp to "cure" her lesbianism. At camp, Megan realizes that she is indeed a lesbian and, despite the "therapy", comes to embrace her sexuality. The supporting cast includes Clea DuVall, RuPaul, and Cathy Moriarty.
Polyester is a 1981 American comedy film directed, produced, and written by John Waters, and starring Divine, Tab Hunter, Edith Massey, and Mink Stole. It satirizes the melodramatic genre of women's pictures, particularly those directed by Douglas Sirk, whose work directly influenced this film. The film is also a satire of suburban life in the early 1980s, involving topics like divorce, abortion, adultery, alcoholism, racial stereotypes, foot fetishism, and the religious right.
Female Trouble is a 1974 American independent dark comedy film written, produced and directed by John Waters. It stars Divine, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole, and Edith Massey, and follows delinquent high school student Dawn Davenport, who runs away from home, gets pregnant while hitchhiking, and embarks upon a life of crime.
Multiple Maniacs is a 1970 independent American black comedy film composed, shot, edited, written, produced, and directed by John Waters, as his second feature film and first "talkie". It features several actors who were part of the Dreamland acting troupe for Waters' films, including Divine, Mary Vivian Pearce, David Lochary, Mink Stole, Edith Massey, George Figgs, and Cookie Mueller. The plot follows a traveling troupe of sideshow freaks who rob their unsuspecting audience members.
Dorothy Karen "Cookie" Mueller was an American actress, writer, and Dreamlander who starred in many of filmmaker John Waters' early films, including Multiple Maniacs, Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble, and Desperate Living.
Mary Vivian Pearce is an American actress. She has worked primarily in the films of John Waters.
Mondo Trasho is a 1969 American 16mm mondo black comedy film by John Waters. The film stars Divine, Mary Vivian Pearce, David Lochary and Mink Stole. It contains very little dialogue, the story being told mostly through musical cues.
Cry-Baby is a 1990 American teen musical romantic comedy film written and directed by John Waters. The film stars Johnny Depp as 1950s teen rebel Wade "Cry-Baby" Walker, and also features a large ensemble cast that includes Amy Locane, Susan Tyrrell, Iggy Pop, Ricki Lake, Traci Lords, and Polly Bergen, with appearances by Troy Donahue, Mink Stole, Joe Dallesandro, Joey Heatherton, David Nelson, Patricia Hearst, and Willem Dafoe. It was Waters' first film following the death of his muse and frequent collaborator Divine.
Dreamlanders are the cast and crew of regulars whom John Waters has used in his films. The term comes from the name of Waters' production company, Dreamland Productions.
Pleasant Gehman is an American author, writer, poet, actress, dancer and musician from Los Angeles.
Stephen Clark Balderson is an American film director.
Peaches Christ is an American underground drag performer, emcee, filmmaker, and actor. Peaches currently resides in San Francisco where her Backlash Production Company and Midnight Mass movie series are based. Grannell studied film at Penn State University, where his senior thesis film Jizzmopper: A Love Story, about a janitor at an adult video store, won the audience award at the annual Penn State Student Film Festival. Grannell developed the Peaches Christ character during the production of this film.
Ashley Fink is an American actress and singer. She is known for roles such as Lauren Zizes in the television series Glee and as Carter McMahon in Huge.
Russian Doll is an American comedy-drama television series, created by Natasha Lyonne, Leslye Headland, and Amy Poehler, that premiered on Netflix on February 1, 2019. The series follows Nadia Vulvokov (Lyonne), a game developer who repeatedly dies and relives the same night in an ongoing time loop and tries to solve it, leading to her finding Alan Zaveri in the same situation. It also stars Greta Lee, Yul Vazquez, Elizabeth Ashley, and Chloë Sevigny.
Patricia Moran Yeaton, known professionally as Pat Moran, is an American actress and casting director active in Baltimore, having won three Emmy Awards for her work. Since early in her career, Moran has been a member of the Dreamlanders, director John Waters' regular cast of actors, notably being, along with Mink Stole and Mary Vivian Pearce, the only actress to appear in every film directed by Waters.
