Brown was born in
Halifax, Nova Scotia, the son of Eric Austin Brown and Gisele Marie Robichaud. North began his adult film career in 1983. Initially, North performed in
gay pornography, as both a top and bottom, under the name Matt Ramsey. He transitioned to straight pornography soon after. North has appeared in over 2,000 adult films and also directed more than 70 films (notably, his
North Pole and
Anal Addicts series), most of them between 1998 and 2007. He has also produced over 20 films, including 15 in the
North Pole series. In 2001, he launched his own production company Northpole Entertainment. According to North's official website, he chose his stage name because "Your penis is also referred to as your Peter and when you are erect, it faces North. Plus, I am from the North." North became involved in the U.S. government's 1986 investigation of
Traci Lords's
underage involvement in the industry. Lords was underage when she made most of her movies, including several sex scenes with North. The government eventually dropped the investigation. In a 1996 interview in
Details magazine, North commented on his involvement in the scandal by saying: "Traci Lords didn't do much for me. She reeked sex, looked good and young. But I didn't know that she was that young. When the scandal broke, I thought it was a lot of baloney on her part. She knew what she was doing and she deceived a lot of people. She was sexually aggressive off camera to many people, so the whole 'innocence corrupted' scenario she came up with was a total farce." In 1994, North published a guide to meeting and bedding beautiful women entitled
Penetrating Insights. North is a member of the X-Rated Critics Organization (
XRCO) and the Adult Video News (
AVN) Hall of Fame. In 2004, North was featured in a book and film project
Thinking XXX by photographer
Timothy Greenfield-Sanders. ==Personal life==