Call Gregg Araki the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of indie writer-directors. Out and about, he’s an upbeat and mild-mannered sort, the kind that speaks fondly of his childhood (“I got a lot of support from my parents”) and life today (he and his husband are “parents” to two pooches in LA). When guiding a movie, though, Araki lets his wild side roar and soar. In cult flicks with titles like Nowhere, Kaboom and The Doom Generation, he’s charted angst-ridden youth as they face drug abuse, bisexual love triangles, psychopathic killers, neo-Nazis, spooky religious cults—you name it. "People are always shocked when they meet me—they expect me to have this wild sex-and-drugs lifestyle,” says Araki, who was born in L.A. and raised in California’s beachy Santa Barbara. “I grew up very middle class. My brother and sister have regular, normal jobs. I just have a very vivid imagination.”

And how. His first-ever series, Starz’s Now Apocalypse (co-created by Karley Sciortino and co-produced by Steven Soderbergh) follows another circle of angsty—and flesh-baring—young folks. Here, L.A. pals Ulysses (Avan Jogia), Carly (former Disney star Kelli Berglund), Ford (Beau Mirchoff, former MTV heartthrob) and Gabriel (Teen Wolf’s Tyler Posey) have lots on their plate, like sexual identity conundrums, Hollywood creeps and maybe even a looming alien invasion. “The show’s an expression of everything I've ever been interested in, from screwball comedies to alienated youth,” says Araki. “I'm in my 50s, but I have such empathy for that time of your life when you’re not formed yet, when everything is a question mark.” Araki is an avowed fan of both Twin Peaks and Sex and the City—not to mention goofy ‘50s sci-fi B movies—so this Apocalypse is more fun than scary. He says he and Sciortino, a former sex and relationships columnist for Vogue, are simply out “to make the craziest, sexiest show that's ever been on TV.”

Where did this Tarantino-meets-Waters auteur get his wild creative streak? “My dad liked to build things,” Araki says with an almost audible shrug. Music has been an influence too. “Punk rock, post-punk and new wave music—that whole culture was such a big part of my life growing up.” Back as an undergrad at UC Santa Barbara, “I’d drive (two hours) to L.A. to see X at The Whiskey.” After he got his masters at USC’s famed film school in 1985, he even wrote rock reviews and interviewed bands like The Jesus and Mary Chain for LA Weekly for a time.

Araki made his first movie in 1987 for $5,000. Most of his efforts since—The Living End, Totally F----- Up, even 2014’s starry White Bird in a Blizzard (a thriller with Shailene Woodley and Angela Bassett)—have been filled with his trademark lost hedonists and lurid shocks. But he’s also made 2004’s devastating, critically acclaimed Mysterious Skin, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Brady Corbet as young men profoundly affected by childhood abuse, and 2007’s goofy Smiley Face, where Anna Faris has a wacky time after accidentally eating some pot-laced cupcakes.

Speaking of smiles, “I find the older I get, the happier and more comfortable I get,” says Araki. “Life is more boring, which is exactly what I want.” Just not when he’s making movies and TV shows, of course. Or when he’s watching them, as his must-see list for Caavo fans reveals.