Criss Angel

Biography

Christopher Nicholas Sarantakos (born December 19, 1967), known professionally as Criss Angel, is an American magician, illusionist, and musician. 

Angel began his career in New York City, before moving his base of operations to the Las Vegas Valley. He is known for starring in the television and stage show Criss Angel Mindfreak and his previous live performance illusion show Criss Angel Believe in collaboration with Cirque du Soleil at the Luxor casino in Las Vegas. 

The show generated $150 million in tourist revenue to Las Vegas in 2010 but has since been replaced by Mindfreak LIVE! in 2016 (the show is partly produced by Cirque du Soleil; however, the directive rights are entirely with Criss Angel). 

He also starred in the television series Criss Angel BeLIEve on Spike TV, the reality-competition television show Phenomenon on NBC, and the 2014 stage show Criss Angel Magicjam.

He also holds multiple world records made during his magic performances and was named Magician of the Decade in 2009 and Magician of the Century in 2010 by the International Magicians Society. 

In addition to his career as an illusionist, Angel was the lead singer for his industrial band Angeldust, which released five albums. He also authored the book Mindfreak: Secret Revelations.

Angel has said, “I stayed away from magicians when I was younger because I didn't want to think like them and wanted to create my own style.” His first television appearance was in 1994, where he performed as a part of Secrets, a one-hour ABC primetime special.

 One of the early supporters of Angel was horror director Clive Barker. In 1995, Barker asked Angel to work with him on his film Lord of Illusions. He also later recorded the intro to Angel's album World of Illusion: System One. Barker started in the mid-1990s, “Criss Angel is extraordinary, a spectacular mix of visionary magic. 

This is the future, and it can't come quickly enough.”  During that year, he collaborated with musician Klayton to form Angeldust, a show that combined magic with music. They released their first album, Musical Conjurings from the World of Illusions, in 1998. 

Also that year, Angel performed a 10-minute show over the course of the "World of Illusion" conference in Madison Square Garden, performing 60 shows per day. However, by 2000, Klayton's name was removed from Angel's website.

In 2002, Angel married his longtime girlfriend JoAnn Winkhart. The couple filed for divorce four years later. Although Angel was seen with his wife in the buried alive illusion (season 1, episode 6, 2005) and the body suspension illusion (season 1, episode 5, 2005), she was not credited as his wife; rather, she was listed as "Criss's Girl". 

In November 2008, Angel began dating Holly Madison, the former girlfriend of Hugh Hefner. The relationship ended in February 2009.  He proposed to Sandra Gonzalez on September 7, 2011, in Cabo San Lucas during a sunset dinner. 

They broke up shortly after. Since 2012, Angel has been dating Australian singer Shaunyl Benson. The couple has two sons together, born in 2014 and 2019, and a daughter born in 2021.