American artist and filmmaker Cindy Sherman was BOTD in 1954. Born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey and raised in Long Island, she studied visual arts at Buffalo State College with the intention of becoming a painter. Switching to photography, she began chronicling her love of dressing up as different characters. She achieved international recognition with Untitled Film Stills, a series of black and white photographs of herself posed as female archetypes from Hollywood B-movies, using costume and make-up to emphasise the constructed nature of her characters. Her later collections Centerfolds/Horizontals and Sex Pictures mimicked the conventions of pornography, continuing to use herself as a model while incorporating prosthetics and mannequins, including a terrifying sequence of clown photos. Her interest in film noir inspired her to write and direct the 1997 feature film Office Killer, a comedy-horror about a woman who goes on a murder spree and arranges her victims’ bodies in stylised poses. She has also designed campaigns for fashion houses Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, Comme des Garçons and Marc Jacobs. In 2016, she returned to classic Hollywood with Imitation of Life, a series of glamour portraits inspired by Douglas Sirk’s 1959 film. One of the most admired artists of her generation, she is credited with challenging cultural representations of women and the voyeuristic male gaze, and inspiring generations of female artists and photographers. Sherman was married to Michael Auder for 15 years, and has had relationships with artist Robert Longo and Talking Heads singer David Byrne. She receives honorary SuperGay status for the queerness of her work, and for her playful examination of gender and the performative nature of identity.