American filmmaker and screenwriter Bill Condon was BOTD in 1955. Born in New York City to a working-class Irish-American family, he studied at Columbia University. After graduating, he worked as a journalist for American Film and Millimeter magazines, before moving to Los Angeles to become a screenwriter, debuting with the low-budget sci-fi films Strange Behaviour and Strange Invaders. He wrote and directed his first film, Sister Sister, in 1987, an erotic melodrama inspired by the work of Tennessee Williams and starring Jennifer Jason Leigh. A critical and commercial bomb, it relegated Condon to Hollywood’s D-list for several years. He made a spectacular comeback in 1998 as the writer-director of Gods and Monsters, a drama about the last days of Frankenstein filmmaker James Whale, adapted from Christopher Bram‘s novel. Premiering at the Sundance Festival, it became one of the year’s most acclaimed films, earning multiple nominations for its stars Ian McKellen and Lynn Redgrave and winning Condon an Oscar for his screenplay. He was Oscar-nominated again for his screenplay for the 2000 film Chicago, which became the first film in 34 years to win Best Picture. In 2004, he wrote and directed Kinsey, a well-reviewed biopic of pioneering American sexologist Alfred Kinsey, focusing on Kinsey’s marriage, bisexuality and relationship with Clyde Martin. He had another major success as the writer-director of the 2006 musical film Dreamgirls, chronicling the early life of Motown girl group The Supremes, earning eight Oscar nominations and making a star of its lead actress Jennifer Hudson. His other screen credits include tween vampire film The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn; The Fifth Estate, a biopic about WikiLeaks whistleblower Julian Assange; and Mr Holmes, a drama about the elderly Sherlock Holmes, reuniting him with McKellen. In 2017, he wrote and directed a successful live-action remake of the Disney musical Beauty and the Beast, triggering controversy over the queering of a secondary character. He also co-authored the screenplay for the critically reviled but commercially successful 2017 musical film The Greatest Showman, starring Hugh Jackman. His latest project, a film adaptation of John Kander, Fred Ebb and Terrence McNally‘s musical Kiss of the Spiderwoman, based on Manuel Puig‘s novel, was released in 2025.