Budd received the nickname "Lucky" from his brother soon after his birth, and the name became his preferred moniker. He moved to Victoria from Toronto in 1995, taking a BA in Humanities from the University of Victoria, and touring with a rock band. In 2000 Budd then became the audio preservationist for CBC during its campaign to digitize its audio archives, including Nisga'aFirst Nation heritage. In 2002 he again attended the University of Victoria, where he completed his graduate degree in History.
Voices of B.C.
Budd is the host of the CBC Radio series Voices of B.C., where he recounts the stories of B.C. pioneers from tapings of their voices that were recorded in the 1950s and '60s by journalist Imbert Orchard. Budd is also the author of its companion book Voices of British Columbia: Stories from our Frontier, published in 2010. That year the book was nominated for a BC Book Prize. In 2014 he then released a follow-up book entitled Echoes of British Columbia; both books were sold alongside a three-CD set of 26 original pioneer recordings. Echoes was the 2nd prize for The Lieutenant-Governor's Medal for Historical Writing 2014. Each of the projects are extensions of his master's thesis, which was done on the archive of pioneer recordings he discovered during his tenure as audio preservationist. Both books were national bestsellers. Budd is also the author of Ted Harrison Collected and Project Manager for the book Storyteller: The Art Of Roy Henry Vickers.
Collaborations with Roy Henry Vickers
In 2013 Budd co-authored Raven Brings the Light with Roy Henry Vickers, who contributed 19 original art pieces to the book. The book became a national bestseller in Canada. They collaborated again in 2014 on the book Cloudwalker, in 2015 on the book Orca Chief, and in 2016 on the book Peace Dancer. Their first three books together were each short-listed for the Bill Duthie Booksellers' Choice Award at the BC Book Prizes, Orca Chief was also the winner of the Moonbeam Spirit Award for Preservation, and nominated for the Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Award and Christie Harris Illustrated Children's Literature Prize, and all four books have also been national bestsellers and referred to as the Northwest Coast Legends Series.
