Asa Akira

Early life

A native of New York City, Akira grew up in an upper middle-class family and attended private schools in New York and Japan. She lived in Tokyo for four years before moving back to the United States in her teens.

Asa is her real first name, which means "morning" in Japanese. Her professional surname was taken from the anime film Akira.

Career

Pornographic career

Akira began working as a dominatrix when she was 19 years old. She later worked as a stripper at the Hustler Club in New York. In 2006–2007 she was a regular on the Bubba the Love Sponge radio show and was known as the "Show Whore". Her first boy-girl scene was with Travis Knight for Gina Lynn Productions, after having already done several girl-girl scenes, mainly with Lynn. She then signed a contract with Vouyer Media before becoming a freelancer six months later.

Akira received several award nominations for her role in David Aaron Clark's 2009 film, Pure, in which she plays a telephonist at a fetish dungeon who has an affair with the head-mistress' husband.

Akira co-hosted the 30th Annual AVN Awards alongside pornographic actress Jesse Jane and comedian April Macie. She won the AVN Female Performer of the Year Award that night. She was also the most awarded person during that ceremony.

In 2013, she made her directorial debut with Elegant Angel's Gangbanged 6.

On October 9, 2013, Akira announced that she signed an exclusive performing contract with Wicked Pictures. Her debut film as a contract performer for the company was Asa Is Wicked.

Mainstream media appearances

In January 2014, Akira, Dana DeArmond, Chanel Preston, and Jessie Andrews were featured in a Cosmopolitan magazine article titled "4 Porn Stars on How They Stay Fit." The article was inspired by actress Gabrielle Union's comment made on Conan O'Brien's talk show about striving to follow the fitness routines of the porn stars she saw at her gym.

In 2014, Akira featured as a guest in episode 1 of season 3 of The Eric Andre Show.

In 2017, Akira appeared as herself in the first episode of the sixteenth season of Family Guy in a live-action casting couch cutaway scene with Peter Griffin. Akira later noted that, ironically, this was her first casting couch scene. The episode featured a recurring joke of people asking Peter "who was the girl on the couch" and Peter giving a deadpan reply that he is certain each inquirer already knows who she is. In the eighth episode of the twentieth season after Peter is fired from his job, he tries to clear his browser history, but it is too late as the company IT guy notes that Peter is "all in" on Akira.

Other media

In 2011, Complex ranked Akira fourth on their list of "The Top 100 Hottest Porn Stars Right Now" and at sixth on their list of "The Top 50 Hottest Asian Porn Stars of All Time". LA Weekly ranked her third on their list of "10 Innovative Porn Stars Who Could Be the Next Sasha Grey" in 2013. She was also placed on CNBC's yearly list "The Dirty Dozen", the site's annual ranking of the adult industry's most popular and successful stars in 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015.

In 2013 Akira and artist David Choe started a podcast featuring 90-minute episodes called DVDASA. It is aimed at a young adult audience, with its goal being to help youth with their problems related to sexuality, career, relationships, etc.

In June 2014, Akira appeared on a YouTube video with vlogger Caspar Lee.

Akira wrote a memoir titled Insatiable: PornA Love Story which was released in May 2014 by Grove Press. In July 2015, she signed a contract with Cleis Press to publish her second book, titled Dirty Thirty: A Memoir, a collection of essays, which was released in the fall of 2016.

On April 6, 2015, The Hundreds started releasing episodes for a series titled Hobbies with Asa Akira, which features Akira trying out different activities such as tattooing, boxing, taxidermy, and ice sculpting.

Akira was the host of The Sex Factor, a 2016 online reality show where eight men and eight women competed for a $1 million prize.

Personal life

Akira states that she is sexually attracted to both men and "girls that look like boys". She dislikes being called bisexual, saying that she leans towards heterosexuality, but is still uncertain. She was once engaged to former pornographic actor Rocco Reed. She was also married to pornographic actor and director Toni Ribas, and she stated that aside from their on-screen work, their relationship was monogamous.

Akira identifies as a feminist.

Awards

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Publications

References

References

1. (18 October 2019). "A Night at the Pornhub Awards".
2. (April 18, 2014). "Anal Queen Asa Akira Talks About Her New Book, 'Insatiable'". Vice.
3. (May 6, 2014). "Asa Akira Does It On Paper". Interview.
4. Rutter, Jared. (June 24, 2008). "Vouyer Media Ships Asa Akira Release".
5. . (May 11, 2014). ["'Insatiable': One Woman's Love Affair With The Porn Industry"](https://www.npr.org/2014/05/11/310536242/insatiable-one-womans-love-affair-with-the-porn-industry). *NPR*.
6. Akira, Asa. (2016). "Dirty Thirty: A Memoir". Cleis Press.
7. Paulie K.. (October 3, 2013). "Catching the Fever of Asa Akira".
8. Wilcox, Adam. (May 9, 2012). "XXX Wasteland Exclusive Interview: Asa Akira".
9. Miller, Dan. (March 16, 2012). "XBIZ TV: 'Insatiable' Asa Akira Goes From Dominatrix to Performer of the Year".
10. Paulie K.. (July 14, 2010). "Asa Akira Strips Down".
11. Rutter, Jared. (September 29, 2009). "Prime Evil Unveils David Aaron Clark's Pure".
12. (January 19, 2013). "Asa Akira Proud To Be Nominated Porn Industry's 'Performer Of The Year' (NSFW)".
13. Javors, Steve. (February 27, 2013). "Interview: AVN Female Performer of the Year Asa Akira".
14. Leach, Robin. (January 20, 2013). "2013 AVN Awards photos: What happens in Vegas only happens in Vegas". [[Las Vegas Sun]].
15. Warren, Peter. (May 1, 2013). "Asa Akira Turns Director With Elegant Angel's 'Gangbanged'".
16. Warren, Peter. (October 10, 2013). "Asa Akira Announces Wicked Contract at The Sex Awards".
17. Kernes, Mark. (October 26, 2013). "Now That Wicked's Got Asa, How Apropos That 'Asa Is Wicked'!".
18. Wischhover, Cheryl. (January 30, 2014). "4 Porn Stars on How They Stay Fit".
19. . (March 2014). "Cosmo turns to porn stars for fitness tips".
20. Cantor, Paul. (July 11, 2011). "The Top 100 Hottest Porn Stars (Right Now)".
21. Alvarez, Gabriel. (September 19, 2011). "The Top 50 Hottest Asian Porn Stars of All Time".
22. Swann, Jennifer. (December 11, 2013). "10 Innovative Porn Stars Who Could Be the Next Sasha Grey". [[LA Weekly]].
23. Morris, Chris. (January 18, 2012). "The Dirty Dozen 2012: Porn's Most Popular Stars". [[CNBC]].
24. Morris, Chris. (January 14, 2013). "The Dirty Dozen 2013 – Porn's Most Popular Stars". [[CNBC]].
25. Morris, Chris. (January 13, 2014). "The Dirty Dozen 2014". [[CNBC]].
26. Morris, Chris. (January 16, 2015). "The Dirty Dozen: Porn's biggest stars".
27. Crocker, Lizzie. (January 29, 2013). "Facebook Artist David Choe Launches New Gig With Porn Star Asa Akira". The Daily Beast.
28. "- YouTube".
29. Miller, Dan. (January 17, 2014). "Asa Akira's Memoir 'Insatiable: Porn—A Love Story' Coming in May".
30. Street, Sharan. (July 17, 2015). "Asa Akira Talks About New Book Deal, New Movie".
31. Euse, Erika. (September 12, 2016). "'Anal Queen' Asa Akira Is Having a Porn-Life Crisis". Vice.
32. Wolf, Cameron. (April 6, 2015). "Watch Asa Akira Learn How to Tattoo".
33. Moye, David. (May 13, 2016). "$1 Million Prize Awaits Winners Of X-Rated 'American Idol' (NSFW)".
34. Akira, Asa. (December 22, 2010). "Ashlynn Brooke {{!}} I Like Girls That Look Like Boys".
35. Ayala, Nelson. (September 20, 2012). "Asa Akira Has Got Rocco Reed Pegged in 'Strap On Desires'".
36. (March 2013). "30th Times a Charm".
37. Bielski, Zosia. (May 23, 2014). "'I'm an exhibitionist, I'm hypersexual': Porn star Asa Akira on why she loves her job". [[The Globe and Mail]].
38. Clark-Flory, Tracy. (May 3, 2014). ""I'm in love with being on display": Adult film star Asa Akira on her insatiable love of porn".
39. Akira, Asa. (September 3, 2014). "Asa Akira: Just Because I Do Porn Doesn't Mean I'm Not A Feminist".
40. Mayer, Chad. (October 9, 2012). "Nightmoves Announces 2012 Award Winners".
41. Street, Sharan. (October 10, 2013). "Winners Announced at Inaugural Sex Awards in Hollywood AVN".
42. Johnson, Bob. (October 13, 2014). "NightMoves Awards Winners Announced".