American filmmaker Bryan Singer was BOTD in 1965. Born in New York City, he was adopted by a wealthy Jewish couple and grew up in West Windsor Township, New Jersey. He began making films in his early teens, and studied filmmaking at the School of Visual Arts in New York, before moving to Los Angeles to attend the USC School of Cinematic Arts. His debut feature film Public Access won the Jury Prize at the 1983 Sundance Festival. He vaulted into Hollywood’s A-list with the 1995 crime thriller The Usual Suspects, making a star of actor Kevin Spacey who won an Oscar for his role as a shape-shifting villain. Singer’s next film Apt Pupil explored the complex, erotically-charged relationship between a Nazi war criminal (played by Ian McKellen) and a teenage American boy. He dominated the 2000s as the director of the massively successful X-Men movie franchise, starring McKellen, Patrick Stewart and Hugh Jackman. Singer leaned into the queer subtext of the X-Men universe, drawing blunt comparisons between his cast of mutants and the “born this way” narrative of gay people, and styling Jackman’s Wolverine as an outrageously sexualised muscle bear. Remaining within the comic book franchise world, he directed Superman Returns in 2007. A number of other film projects failed to materialised, bolstered by rumours of Singer’s on-set reputation as a bully and a series of lawsuits against him for sexual assault of underage men and boys. In 2016, he was hired to direct Bohemian Rhapsody, the long-awaited biopic of Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury. Fired after two weeks following frequent absences from set, he was replaced by Dexter Fletcher, though was allowed to keep directorial credit. The resulting film became a critical and commercial success, winning an Oscar for its star Rami Malek. Singer’s career imploded after a 2017 lawsuit for raping a 17 year-old boy. Two years later, The Atlantic published an investigative report, detailing four further accusations of sexual abuse of minors. He was subsequently fired from his next film project Dark Phoenix, and has not directed a feature film since then. Singer continues to deny all the allegations against him, and is rumoured to be producing and self-financing a documentary to refute the allegations. He identifies as bisexual and is raising a son with his friend Michelle Clunie. As of 2023, he lives in Israel, where he is rumoured to be making a film with the actor Jon Voight.