English artist, writer and broadcaster Grayson Perry was BOTD in 1960. Born in Essex to a working-class family, he had an unhappy childhood, identifying as a transvestite by his teens. Thrown out of home by his mother and stepfather, he studied fine art at the Portsmouth College of Art and Design. He moved to London in the 1970s, where he lived in a commune, studying ceramics and appearing in performance art. He had his first solo exhibition in 1984, comprised of his ceramic works, and made pottery his main art form, though also began working with textiles and embroidery. His work adopted the classical forms of Greek and Roman pottery, painted in bright Day-Glo colours and covered with witty, often disturbing cartoon depictions of child abuse, pedophilia and domestic violence. He achieved celebrity status in 2003 when he won the Turner Prize, Britain’s foremost visual arts award. He accepted the award dressed as Claire, his female alter ego, stating “It’s about time a transvestite potter won the Turner Prize”. Following the win, he made a television documentary about transvestism, Why Men Wear Frocks and published a memoir Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl. His 2009 piece The Walthamstow Tapestry followed the narrative of a human life with references to contemporary consumer culture. He repeated the project with The Vanity of Small Differences, a sequence of six tapestries exploring working-class, middle-class and upper-class cultures, chronicled in the television documentary All in the Best Possible Taste. In 2016, he created a series of portraits on modern masculinity, All Man, for the National Portrait Gallery, followed by the book The Descent of Man. His 2018 project, Rites of Passage, displayed British cultural totems for celebrating landmark events. One of Britain’s most beloved and recognisable artists, Perry has been instrumental in making queer culture more visible, while never compromising the radical aspects of his identity. He lives in London with his wife writer and therapist Phillippa Perry, with whom he has a daughter.