American writer and convicted fraudster Laura Albert was BOTD in 1965. Born in Brooklyn, New York City to a middle-class family, she was raised by her mother after her parents’ divorce, living in a home for troubled children in her teens. She studied at the New School before moving to San Francisco, supporting herself by writing erotic fiction and working as a phone sex operator. Posing as a troubled transgender teen named Jeremiah “Terminator” (JT) LeRoy, she began telephone therapy with a psychologist, who encouraged her to write Terminator’s story. Her resulting novel Sarah was published in 2000 under the name JT LeRoy, a lurid tale of a pre-teen male who is forced into prostitution by his mother, working as a “lot lizard” to service adult men at truck stops in West Virginia. The novel’s mix of sexual transgression, trauma narrative and clichéd portrait of white trash America became a sleeper hit, prompting Albert to publish a prequel novel, The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things. In 2001, Albert persuaded her boyfriend’s sister Savannah Knoop to start posing as LeRoy in public, with Albert accompanying her as LeRoy’s friend Speedie. LeRoy quickly became the darling of the indie film scene, attracting celebrity friends including Courtney Love, Liv Tyler, Billy Corgan, Marilyn Manson, Dennis Cooper, Winona Ryder and Gus Van Sant. Albert frequently posed as LeRoy in telephone conversations with Love, Van Sant and others, secretly recording their conversations. In 2004, Argento directed and starred in a film of The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things, during which she had an affair with Knoop-as-LeRoy. The hoax was uncovered in a 2005 New York magazine article and later in a New York Times report, corroborated by Albert’s boyfriend. The resulting scandal triggered debates about authenticity versus performance and the voyeuristic appeal of abuse narratives, with some enjoyable mocking of the celebrities fooled by the charade. Albert was successfully sued for fraud by film producers who had purchased an option to produce a film of Sarah, though was allowed to retain copyright in her LeRoy books. She later wrote for the TV drama series Deadwood and developed a lucrative career as a lecturer and public speaker. In 2008, Knoop published a memoir Girl Boy Girl: How I Became JT LeRoy, noting that Albert was the sole financial beneficiary of the hoax. Albert co-produced and starred in the 2016 documentary Author: The JT LeRoy Story, continuing to defend her actions on the grounds of artistic freedom and describing LeRoy as her “avatar”. She was played by Laura Dern in the 2018 biopic JT LeRoy, based on Knoop’s memoir. Albert identifies as queer and continues to live in San Francisco. Her current relationship status is unknown.