Serano is a poetry slam champion and has given spoken-word performances at universities as well as at events such as the National Queer Arts Festival, San Francisco Pride Dyke March and Trans March stages, Ladyfest, outCRY!, Femme 2006 and in The Vagina Monologues. Serano is also the lyricist-guitarist-vocalist for the pop trio Bitesize.

Serano, a transsexual lesbian feminist, organizes and hosts GenderEnders, a performance series that features the work of transgender, intersex, and genderqueer artists and allies. It has produced 20 shows. Serano received a grant to curate "The Penis Issue: Trans and Intersex Women Speak Their Minds," a spoken-word event, as part of the 2007 National Queer Arts Festival.

Dr. Serano is also a biologist who works as a researcher at UC Berkeley in the field of evolutionary and developmental biology. She received her doctorate in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics from Columbia University. Among her discoveries is K10 transport/localisation element in Drosophila.