Richard O'Brien

Richard O'Brien, born Richard Timothy Smith on 25 March 1942 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England, is a British-New Zealand actor, composer, and writer best known for creating The Rocky Horror Show. He emigrated with his family to Tauranga, New Zealand, at the age of ten, where his father, an accountant, had purchased a sheep farm. O'Brien attended Tauranga Boys' College and Fairfield School in Hamilton, New Zealand, in 1952. While living in Hamilton, he worked as a barber at a shop situated in front of the Embassy Theatre, where he attended late-night picture shows and developed the ideas that would eventually become The Rocky Horror Picture Show. He returned to England in 1964, having acquired horseback riding skills that earned him work as a stuntman in Carry On Cowboy, and having developed a strong interest in comic books and horror films. He adopted his mother's maiden name professionally because another actor was already registered under the name Richard Smith.

O'Brien launched his stage career by taking method acting classes and joining theatrical productions. In 1970, he spent nine months in the touring production of Hair, followed by another nine months in the London production. In the summer of 1972, director Jim Sharman cast him as an Apostle and Leper in the London production of Jesus Christ Superstar. Sharman subsequently cast O'Brien as Willie in his March 1973 production of Sam Shepard's The Unseen Hand at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs. That same collaboration led to the realization of O'Brien's draft for a gothic-themed, schlock-horror musical fantasy. Sharman suggested changing the working title from They Came from Denton High, and The Rocky Horror Show opened at the Theatre Upstairs in June 1973. The production quickly became a box-office success, transferring from the Royal Court to the Classic Cinema on the King's Road, then to the King's Road Theatre, and eventually into the West End at the Comedy Theatre. Jonathan King, after attending the second night's performance, produced the original cast soundtrack in just over 48 hours and released it on his UK Records label, while also becoming a twenty percent backer alongside producer Michael White.

O'Brien appeared on Broadway in The Rocky Horror Show in 1975. The production received a Tony Award nomination for Best Revival of a Musical in 2001 and a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Revival of a Musical the same year. O'Brien also co-wrote the screenplay for the 1975 film adaptation, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, with director Jim Sharman, and appeared on screen in the role of Riff Raff. In 2004, the Hamilton City Council in New Zealand honored his contribution to the arts by erecting a statue of the Riff Raff character on the site of the former Embassy Cinema.

O'Brien continued writing musicals in collaboration with arranger Richard Hartley, producing T. Zee in 1976, Disaster in 1978, The Stripper in 1982, and Top People in 1984. He and Hartley also contributed three songs to the 1983 film The Return of Captain Invincible, starring Alan Arkin. O'Brien co-wrote the musical film Shock Treatment in 1981 and appeared on screen as Dr. Cosmo McKinley. He wrote a one-man revue, Disgracefully Yours, in 1985, performing as the character Mephistopheles Smith, and a music CD of songs from that show, titled Absolute O'Brien, was released in 1998. He also wrote the lyrics for The Stripper, which had its British premiere at the Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch, on 28 August 2009. During the early period of his career, O'Brien and his wife Kimi Wong recorded and released pop singles together under the name Kimi and Ritz.

His screen acting credits include Flash Gordon (1980), Spice World (1997), Ever After (1998), Dark City (1998), Dungeons and Dragons (2000), and Elvira's Haunted Hills (2001). He also guest starred in five episodes of the third series of the HTV dramatization of Robin of Sherwood, playing the corrupt druid Gulnar. O'Brien became the presenter of the Channel 4 game show The Crystal Maze in 1990, hosting the first four series through 1993. The show regularly ranked as Channel 4's highest-rated program, reaching a peak of seven million viewers for the 1993 Christmas special. He hosted the 1993 Brit Awards and participated in Thank You for the Music, a 90-minute ABBA documentary for ITV directed by Martin Koch, performing at the Prince of Wales Theatre alongside Liz McClarnon and the Dynamos in a remake of the ABBA mini musical The Girl with the Golden Hair.

O'Brien conceptualized and played the role of the Child Catcher in the West End production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, reprising the role for the final two weeks of the show's five-year British run in September 2007 and then performing in its Singapore engagement in November and December of that year. In 2006, he played the Child Catcher at the Queen's 80th birthday celebrations at Buckingham Palace. From 2008 to 2015, and again from 2025, O'Brien voiced the character Lawrence Fletcher in the Disney Channel animated series Phineas and Ferb, including its 2011 and 2020 films.

O'Brien gained dual citizenship with New Zealand in 2011 and resided in Tauranga. He is transgender, identifies as third gender, and uses he/him pronouns. From 2001 to 2006, he hosted the annual Transfandango, a gala gathering held to raise funds for the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, for which he also served as a patron through the Five Stars Scanner Appeal.