Condon was born in New York City on October 22, 1955,[2] the son of a police detective,[3] and was raised in an Irish Catholic family.

[6] In college he saw Sweet Charity (1969), which led to "a lifelong love affair with movies that are reviled and rejected in their time.

Test screenings led to major changes to the film, which still proved a critical failure that set back Condon's career.

[14] Reminded years later of this phase of his career, Condon said: "It's hard to be lower on the totem pole than being the director for a sequel to a horror movie.

The New York Times said Condon "may have been the most stunned person at the Academy Awards when his name was announced as the winner for the best adapted screenplay.

Scott wrote that "Bill Condon's smart, stirring [film] has a lot to say on the subject of sex, which it treats with sobriety, sensitivity and a welcome measure of humor."

There are some explicit images and provocative scenes, but it is your intellect that is most likely to be aroused.... Mr. Condon's great achievement is to turn Kinsey's complicated and controversial career into a grand intellectual drama.

Charles Isherwood described it in The New York Times as "a full-scale reimagining" of the musical that involved "the addition and subtraction of several songs ..., the reordering of others", and new dialogue contributed by Condon.

[25] That production received excellent reviews when it moved to Broadway in the fall, but it proved a failure at the box office and closed after just seven weeks.

[1] A few weeks before the film's scheduled release on March 17, 2017, Condon announced that one character, LeFou, has "a nice, exclusively gay moment", which resulted in an "internet meltdown" of contrasting support and condemnation.

In July 2021, Condon signed on to direct a Guys and Dolls movie adaptation by TriStar Pictures but left the project in 2023 and was replaced by Chicago director Rob Marshall.

[32] In December 2023, it was announced that Condon would write and direct a film adaptation of the musical version of Kiss of the Spider Woman, with Jennifer Lopez attached to star and co-executive produce.