Asa Akira
#9 in our Top 50 Pornstars (Women) · Japanese-American · active 2006–present
Photo: Holly Randall · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Asa Akira went from Manhattan private-school kid to AVN Female Performer of the Year, and then did something rarer still: became one of the industry's best writers and talkers about itself. Her memoirs are genuinely well-reviewed books, and her podcast interviews are considered some of the most honest coverage the business gets.
Two decades in, she operates as performer, director, author and unofficial elder stateswoman — the person mainstream media calls when it wants the industry explained intelligently.
Career highlights
- AVN Female Performer of the Year 2013
- AVN Hall of Fame; published author of two memoirs
- Long-running podcast host and one of the industry's sharpest public voices