American writer Bret Easton Ellis was BOTD in 1964. Born in Los Angeles to a middle-class family, he attended Bennington College in Vermont, where he befriended the writer Donna Tartt. His first novel Less Than Zero, published in 1985 when he was 21, made him a literary superstar. A nihilistic portrait of omnisexual trust fund babies, it was praised for capturing the soulessness of 1980s capitalism. He and fellow writer Jay McInerney became known as the literary Brat Pack, with well-publicised accounts of their debauched partying. Ellis ignited a national controversy with his 1991 novel American Psycho, a first-person portrait of a Wall Street trader who moonlights as a serial killer. Readers and critics were repulsed by Ellis’ graphic descriptions of torture, murder, mutilation and cannibalism, and he spent several years defending his work from allegations of misogyny. His reputation was salvaged by Mary Harron’s witty 2000 film adaptation, leading to a critical reappraisal of his work. He continued his psycho-yuppie schtick with novels The Informers and Glamorama, and received critical praise for his auto-fictional 2005 novel Lunar Park. Perhaps unwisely, he shifted his focus to screenplay writing. His only produced work to date, the erotic thriller The Canyons, was directed by Paul Schrader and starred a post-rehab Lindsay Lohan. A box-office bomb, it was critically trashed, prompting Ellis to take bitter swipes at his critics via social media. Famously reluctant to acknowledge or define his sexuality, he eventually came out as gay in 2012 (while apologising for a series of controversial Tweets). His latest novel The Shards was released in 2023. Ellis was in a long-term relationship with Michael Wade Kaplan until the latter’s death in 2005. His current relationship status is unknown.