Criss Angel

He was born as Christopher Nicholas Sarantakos on December 19, 1967, in New York to Dimitra and John Sarantakos. He is of Greek descent. His father owned a successful restaurant and doughnut shop.

He became interested in magic at the age of seven after one of his aunts showed him a card trick. He began practicing magic tricks day and night and soon mastered quite a few of them. He gave his first performance at a birthday party at the age of 12.

He studied at East Meadow High School, and throughout his student days gave performances at local restaurants. By the time he graduated, he had decided to pursue a career as a professional magician.

Criss Angel began touring with other travelling performance acts immediately out of high school. Even though he did not go to college, he tried to educate himself by studying the history of magic in public libraries. He also studied the art of mysticism, music, martial arts and even dance. He adopted the stage name “Criss Angel” at the time of embarking on his performance career.

A naturally talented performer with a knack for creating credible illusions, he soon became a popular magician and illusionist and received an opportunity to perform on television in 1994. His first small screen appearance was as a part of a one-hour ABC primetime special titled ‘Secrets’.

His fame continued growing over the ensuing years and he found a big supporter in film director Clive Barker who asked Angel to work with him on his film ‘Lord of Illusions’.

He made several television appearances in the late 1990s and starred in the 1997 television movie ‘The Science of Magic’ and its 2003 sequel ‘The Science of Magic II’. In 2001, he also started performing in the stage show ‘Criss Angel Mindfreak’ which ran for more than 600 performances between 2001 and 2003 at the World Underground Theater.

His one-hour television special ‘Supernatural’ was aired by SciFi Channel in 2003. He crawled up buildings, passed a quarter through his skin, and made otherworldly creatures emerge from his chest in the show. He also performed stunts including one in which he lit himself on fire and made a tarantula emerge from a pedestrian's soda can.

Criss Angel is best known as the co-writer, illusions creator and designer, original concept creator and star of the show ‘Criss Angel Believe’, a theatrical production created in partnership with Cirque du Soleil. In spite of the fact that the show opened to harsh reviews and negative criticism, it went on to become the bestselling live magic show in the world.