Anglo-New Zealand actor and songwriter Richard O’Brien was BOTD in 1942. Born Richard Smith in Cheltenham, England, his family emigrated to New Zealand when he was ten, settling on a sheep farm near Tauranga. He returned to England in 1964 to pursue an acting career, joining London productions of the musicals Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar. In 1973, he and director Jim Sharman premiered The Rocky Horror Show, an X-rated musical parody of comic-book horror films, featuring the mad transvestite scientist Dr Frank-N-Furter who creates an Aryan muscle man in his laboratory. An immediate hit, the production transferred to London’s West End, becoming a box office sensation and making a star of Tim Curry as Frank-N-Furter. A film adaptation followed in 1975, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, with Curry reprising his role and O’Brien playing laboratory assistant Riff-Raff. The film quickly became a cult favourite, with raucous late-night audiences dressing as the characters and singing along with the musical numbers. O’Brien continued writing musicals with mixed success, and made appearances in Derek Jarman’s film Jubilee, sci-fi schlock-fest Flash Gordon and the television series Robin of Sherwood. In the 1990s, he hosted British game show The Crystal Maze, specialising in bitchy put-downs and random harmonica playing. In 2002, he originated the role of the Child Catcher in the West End musical production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Openly queer since forever, O’Brien identifies as transgender and non-binary, though caused controversy in 2020 by stating that trans women are not real women. Married three times, he has three children. He lives in New Zealand with his third wife, Sabrina Graf.