American filmmaker Todd Solondz was BOTD in 1959. Born in Newark, New Jersey, he studied at Yale College and New York University, and began making short films during the 1980s. His 1995 debut feature Welcome to the Dollhouse, a harrowing high-school drama about a persecuted middle-school student named Dawn Weiner, won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Festival and became a sleeper indie hit. His next film Happiness, a pitch-black ensemble comedy, was dropped by its initial distributor for its frank references to rape, pedophilia, incest, murder, suicide and a very misplaced cum shot. Eventually distributed by Good Machine, it received rave reviews and the International Critics Prize at the Cannes Festival. His 2001 film Storytelling again fell foul of American censors for a graphic sex scene between a white college student and her African-American professor involving racist slurs. Solondz refused to cut the scene, and insisted that the film be released in the United States with a red box covering the actors’ naked bodies. His subsequent films Palindromes, Life During Wartime and Weiner-Dog, mostly revisiting characters and storylines from his earlier work, were less well-received. Solontz lives in New York City with his wife and two children. Despite being straight, the unflinching honesty and savage humour of his work, and his empathy with sexual outsiders earns him Honorary SuperGay Status.