Richard O'Brien

Richard O'Brien is a British actor, writer and composer best known as the creator of The Rocky Horror Show, the cult stage musical he wrote in the mid-1970s that spawned the film adaptation The Rocky Horror Picture Show, in which he also starred as the servant Riff Raff. The musical fuses glam rock, doo-wop, and B-movie horror and science-fiction pastiche into a theatrical, campy score that became one of the most enduring cult phenomena in entertainment history.

Songs from the show, including «Sweet Transvestite», «Time Warp» and «Science Fiction / Double Feature», have become iconic beyond the production itself, fueling decades of midnight screenings, audience participation traditions and stage revivals worldwide. O'Brien's songwriting draws on 1950s rock and roll and science-fiction B-movie nostalgia, filtered through a theatrical, gender-bending glam sensibility distinctive to the era it emerged from.

Beyond Rocky Horror, O'Brien contributed to its follow-up Shock Treatment and has remained a defining figure of cult musical theatre, with his work continuing to be performed, adapted and referenced across film, television and stage productions decades after its debut.