There is no other person in the world who changed it as much as Buck Angel did during his transition from a female runway model to the greatest pioneer in the adult porn industry as a female-to-male entertainer. He is a world-renowned performer who has been celebrated for his job and accomplishments. It seems, he’s got endless patience, having spent years explaining to other people that he is a man, even though he still has a pussy. Buck Angel is known as an American trans guy, adult movie actor and producer, LGBT icon and a founder of Buck Angel Entertainment. He works as an educator, advocate, writer and lecturer and has been called a Transsexual Performer of the Year in 2007. 

Buck Angel was born on June 5, 1972 in San Francisco’s San Fernando Valley and was named Susan by his birth. His gender atypical behavior during childhood and adolescence was accepted at home and treated as signs of being a tomboy. Buck says, he always felt like a guy. He didn’t “think”, he “was”. Parents called him Buck and treated very much like a boy unlike his sisters who were both butch too. Angel says, he had male energy, while his sisters had masculine one. Looking back, Buck feels really bad for his parents and says he doesn’t blame them for anything they did. Today his relationship with them is perfect as they made a huge effort to treat him as their son. But it wasn’t always so. 

Going through puberty period at around age 15, his home life became really tense. His parents were Republicans and Buck became a hardcore drug addict. Secondary sex characteristics began to appear becoming a breaking point for Angel. He got into smoking and drinking a lot. Buck was so much shy he constantly wore a baseball cap not to make an eye contact and start up a conversation. After he tried to commit a suicide in high school, his parents sent him to therapy. During that period he felt like a guy for the first time. As the information wasn’t received right, doctors wanted him to put in a mental institution. 

That period of life Buck knew nothing about hormone replacement therapy for treating gender dysphoria, so he lived for years as a girl using name Laura for working as a professional model. Angel was uncomfortable as a lady and he had to hang out with butch lesbians because there was no other place to go. Buck stated he was dissatisfied with his existence and identity and said he “wasn’t loving life”. Around 18 years ago he saw a documentary about a transsexual that changed and saved his life. By that time there was no Internet and he had to do everything on his own. Buck was looking for books on transsexuals in bookshops and for a doctor who could help him. That was difficult. 

At last he found one in Los Angeles who started shooting him with testosterone. Buck Angel was very nervous about it, because he didn’t know how he would look like in the end. Anyway, there was no other way except committing suicide. Immediate changes has began. Buck lost his period in one month. He went to ten different doctors to take top surgery and hormones that cost him a lot of money, but he got two jobs to pay for it. He had also gynecomastia that made him be proud of his chest. Now he takes testosterone every week for the rest of his life and doing bodybuilding for looking good. 

Buck Angel says, he moved into the adult porn industry over 10 years ago. At that time he made his first fetish video for his own company, The Pro Dominatrix. He made fetish, smoking, foot, dominatrix and bondage movies in his dungeon in Los Angeles together with his wife. As he taught himself to edit and use a camera, he put videos on VHS and sold them through the Internet. He also began to produce and act in his own line of adult films for his label, Buck Angel Entertainment. As Buck hadn’t had any genital surgery, he created a unique niche, calling himself “The Man With A Pussy”. First, he released only one or two videos a year, because he was afraid of oversaturating the market with his product. 

In 2005, Angel became the first trans man in an all-male porn video produced by gay porn company. Since that time Buck is considered to be a pioneer of an entirely new genre in gay porn movies. He says, he loves his videos. He has seen a growth with his work and talent that he is able to cast today. Buck says, in the beginning it was rather hard for him to cast, as the performers were scared to be in a video with him. They had no idea how this would impact on their career. Porn business is very conservative in a sense you cannot really do crossover gay straight job. But Angel says, he did it and he would do one more movie before thinking of quitting making porn videos. 

The same year, 2005, Buck Angel was in another movie where he performed with trans woman Allanah Starr. He was nominated for Most Outrageous Sex Scene and Transsexual Performer of the Year. Also in 2005, Buck Angel starred in the video directed by transsexual Gia Darling called Allanah Starr’s Big Boob Adventures. That was the first filmed sex scene between a trans man and a trans woman. Allanah was nominated for two AVN Awards such as Most Outrageous Sex Scene and Transsexual Performer of the Year for that video. In 2008 Angel starred in Buckback Mountain. That scene earned two nominations for Best Specialty Release and Best Alternative Release at the GayVN Awards. In October 2008 Buck Angel appeared in producer Ed Power’s book called “Naked” dedicated to the adult porn business. He also directed a video with Wolf Hudson for the accompanying documentary movie “Naked”, produced by Justin Lubin known as a mainstream photographer. 

Also in 2008 Buck Angel and Allanah Starr were sculpted life-size by artist Marc Quinn from London. The finished sculpture has been displayed all over the world. Buch says, it was amazing experience. Before he knew anything about it he visited Trafalgar Square in London for looking at Alison Lapper’s sculpture. Mark cast their hands and feet and after that he and Allanah stood on a lazy Susan. Photographers took thousands of pictures of them from all angles. From there Marc made a plaster, which was sent to Italy where they made it in bronze. As Buck says, it was an experience of his lifetime. 

Between 2006-2010 Buck Angel frequently appears on various talk shows and at sex conventions, including Tyra Banks, Howard Stern, Maury Povich and Secret Lives of Women in America, the Jensen Show in Holland and the Morning Show in Great Britain. Buck says, he believes that people must recognize this as a real medical condition. He also believes, lots of people don’t take it as seriously as it needs to be taken. It’s like to become a thing in a trend. People play with their gender and perhaps they do not really want to be male. It’s ok. But as a real transsexual person, Angel doesn’t consider himself a transsexual, he considers himself a guy. 

Buck Angel becomes more mainstream. He speaks at events, talks in schools, saying it’s an honour to speak to people like that. In 2010 he appeared at Idea City in Toronto, where he met all types of people, including photographers, astronauts, scientists. Buck isn’t an educated person, he hardly graduated high school but it didn’t prevent him from being an expert in his field. He tells about his sex change, his life before it, how depressed and sad he was, how he felt like nothing could change for him. Buck Angel is sure if a person wants something bad enough he can have it. Buck doesn’t consider himself as a trans activist, but he is an advocate for people who are just different. He wants all people to feel inspired by his message of self acceptance and help change the world view on this point. 

In February 2010, Angel was invited at Sex Week at Yale University and at a Master’s Tea. He says, he received e-mails from people threatening that they were going to kick his ass when he arrived at Yale. He paid no attention to that fact. But Yale took it seriously and had police stationed outdoor. Buck also says, he gets hate males, telling him that he is what is wrong with this world these days. But it doesn’t bother him. Instead, Angel says he must be doing something right if he can get people that crazy. He is told to take these things more seriously, but Buck refuses to live his life in fear of angry people. He had to live in hiding for so long period of time because of society’s outdated rules. So, he doesn’t let it influence his daily life. 

In 2012 Buck Angel launched a dating website for trans people called BuckAngelDating.com. As Buck said, he did this because there wasn’t still any special dating source catering to the unique needs of transgender men. In 2010-2012 he also created an award winning series considering trans male sexuality known as "Sexing The Transman XXX". In 2013, Buck Angel and Jody Rose created transgasm.org for helping transgender people raise the money for sexual reassignment surgery, but it was quickly closed as accusations appeared that this site was a pyramid scheme. Anyway, Angel calls self-esteem to be his biggest role that has benefited the trans people. 

He says, he has watched how in the beginning, the majority of transgender men didn’t support him in what he was doing. But nowadays, Buck receives lots of thankful emails for helping them to overcome their complete disregard and self loathing for whom they are. Angel is sure he has given transgender people a vocabulary that they now use to describe themselves and to be proud of their identity. Today a lot of trans men use phrases or terms Buck Angel has introduced through his job years ago to hook up with other guys. 

Karin Winslow also known as Ilsa Strix or San Francisco dominatrix was first Buck’s wife. She left Angel for her client, Lana Wachowski. Actually Buck became Angel when he met his second wife Elayne Angel on a dating website and moved to New Orleans to be with her. She is a body piercer, modification enthusiast and a tattooer. Buck calls his wife a person who has played the most significant and positive role in his life. She has given him support that helped him to be there where he is now. Over a year Buck was doing his “Buck Angel The FTM Pornstar” idea and getting nothing but no support and hate mails. He was ready to give up. But Elayne was the one who told him to hang tough. She never get jealous which is very important for Buck. He feels like the happiest guy in the world as his wife is sexy, funny and bright soul mate. 

Buck notifies, he has an amazing life and feels as if he is blessed. He moved to Mexico about four years ago soon after Katrina hit New Orleans where he and his wife lived. Now Angel has an acre of land in Mexico with a house, guesthouse and his own gym for working out. He also has a cook and a gardener what makes him feel as if he lives a rockstar lifestyle there. He travels all over the world with his wife, so they both spend a lot of time being on the road. But when he is at home, he is at home. No parties. His wife Elayne is concerned, the porn is just a job, so Buck is very lucky to have a person like her in his life. She is also very supportive of everything he does. Angel considers himself a normal, successful, business person. 

As for the future, Buck Angel says he wants to do more workshops. He wants to speak at conferences and universities. Buck hopes to change the world through his videos which become more documentary and touch transgender people theme. There is an idea of selling it as a series. But he also likes doing his sex work as he thinks that sexuality is very important for trans men. It has really helped him to feel happy and made him a strong guy. Buck also works on a theater project called a one man show though he isn’t an actor. He writes his own autobiographical book and works on a reality TV show. 

Now he makes inspiring bodybuilding videos for trans men as his physique is highly admired by his fans. Buck says, he was receiving a lot of mails from guys who wanted to know how they could get a body like his. So Angel realized he basically had to learn all by himself how to create a good body. The doctors never told him anything about the effects of testosterone on his body, so he just put on weight without eating right and working out. Buck wanted to help guys not go through what he went through and basically provide useful information so that they could make healthy choices. Food was one of the most important factors for Angel’s body. It could either make or break his muscle growth. Buck’s piece of advice is that to eat healthy food with one day off for unhealthy one. 

Buck Angel says he is really happy to see more of the transgender men community coming around to support him. It was rather hard in the beginning when he had no idea what to do with all those hostile guys. He came to realize that community can be a barrier keeping trans men from growing into individuals. Buch thinks it’s very important not to do what other people are doing just because they say that’s how its done. Angel wants them to be individuals. He says trans people need to make changes the way they want, but not the way the community is telling them to do. This is because sexuality and gender are really  broad spectrum.