In 2005, Dan Bucatinsky and his partner, Don Roos, found themselves in an L.A. delivery room, decked out in disposable scrubs from shower cap to booties, to welcome their adopted baby girl—launching their frantic yet memorable adventures into fatherhood. Two and a half years later, the same birth mother—a heroically generous, pack-a-day teen with a passion for Bridezilla marathons and Mountain Dew—delivered a son into the couple’s arms. In Does This Baby Make Me Look Straight? Bucatinsky moves deftly from sidesplitting stories about where kids put their fingers to the realization that his athletic son might just grow up to be straight and finally to a reflection on losing his own father just as he’s becoming one. Bucatinsky’s soul-baring and honest stories tap into that all-encompassing, and very human, hunger to be a parent—and the life-changing and often ridiculous road to getting there.
Dan Bucatinsky was born in New York City, to Argentinian parents. He later went to Vassar College, graduated Phi Beta Kappa and moved back to New York to become an actor and a writer. After moving to Los Angeles, in 1992, he met his current husband of 20 years, filmmaker Don Roos. Professionally, Dan is known for writing and starring in the indie romatic comedy "All Over the Guy" (Lionsgate). In 2003 he and partner Lisa Kudrow founded Is Or Isn't Entertainment, which produced the cult HBO comedy "The Comeback" co-starring Bucatinsky as publicist Billy Stanton. The third season of their acclaimed docu-series "Who Do You Think You Are?" premiered on NBC this year. The pair have also garnered critical and audience attention for the groundbreaking web-to TV series "Web Therapy" in which Bucatinsky also stars. The award winning series will launch its 2nd season on Showtime in July.
"I was on the set of "Under the Tuscan Sun" where I was working as an actor - when the director, Audrey Wells, was expounding on the joys of "discovering the father" in one's spouse. Call it my own "ah-ha" moment... which turned into an "oh shit" moment when I realized I only had 3 Euro left on my Italian phone card - just enough to scream into a pay phone to Don how I wanted to discover the 'father' in him. And not in the creepy, kinky way.
About a year later, we'd embarked on the harrowing and complicated task of retaining an adoption lawyer and registering with an adoption agency to maximize our chances of meeting a birth mom before either of us could become a member of AARP (Don)... And by the end of 2004, we were matched with a two-pack-a-day, Slurpee-loving teen from Wisconsin. We were expecting our daughter, who was born in March of 2005. Two years later, my father became terminally ill with brain cancer and died in March of 2007. Our son, Jonah, named after my father, was born six months later.
During that time, and since then... I have continued to write about my experience as a new father. But soon my writing expanded into ruminations about all aspects of how my life has been impacted by having kids: as a man in a same-sex marriage, as a son, as a brother... as a man. A man who never thought he'd ever be standing in front of a cherubic five-year-old he'd call his daughter while she told him: "Daddy, smell my fingers."
Check out more about Dan on www.whosay.com/danbucatinsky
Go to www.doesthisbabymakemelookstraight.com
Check out Bucatinsky on Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-bucatinsky
