A Field Guide to Asa Akira

As loyal readers know, we’ve been crushing on Asa Akira for over five years–which might make this field guide seem a bit belated. But if you ask us, it’s never to late to learn more about the things you love. And if those things have just come out with a sizzling tell all memoir, then it’s a damn good time to get educated about what it is they’re all about.

Asa Akira was born January 2, 1986, in New York City, and spent her early years in lower Manhattan. At the age of nine, her family moved back to Japan; but a few years later she was back in Brooklyn and enrolling at the prestigious United Nations International School in Manhattan (an institution she gained access to thanks to her grandfather’s decades long stint as a Japanese diplomat).

Asa’s classmates may have dreamed of growing up to be investment bankers and politicians, but for Asa, the adult industry was the only end goal she ever had in sight. Not that she actually knewhow, exactly, to get in porn: as a diplomat’s granddaughter, Porn Valley wasn’t exactly familiar territory, and it took several steps (and some missteps) to get from the UN School to the AVN Awards. Asa ended up leaving the UN School after her freshman year (ostensibly because of bad grades, but we like to think it was to get access to more real life experiences) and enrolled first at Washington Irving School and then City As School for the remainder of high school. She also explored a number of jobs, from modeling for sketchy Craigslist photographers to working the cash register at a children’s book store to interning at fashion magazine V (an experience she describes as “the most degrading thing I’ve ever done”). Sadly, none of that got her any closer to her pornographic dreams: it was a chance encounter on a Manhattan street that got her her first job in sex work, and one step closer to being in porn.

Asa entered the sex industry through the dominatrix door, but left that life when she discovered she could make much more money working as a stripper. But the charm of exotic dancing soon wore off as she tired of the nonstop hustle (“I’m a bad salesperson,” she says), so she started to pursue other options. Work on Bubba the Love Sponge’s radio show put her in touch with Gina Lynn, who offered her on-camera work. Asa’s life long dream was finally in her hands — but even as she found herself mere steps from sex work, she still had some doubts she had to deal with. As she told The New York Post:

I knew that if I ever did one scene in a porno, it would change my life forever. So many jobs I can’t do now. I can’t do anything with children. I’m an only child, didn’t want to break my parents’ hearts.

But destiny was too strong to keep Asa and the adult industry apart. As we all know, she did shoot those scenes with Gina Lynn, which led to an agency flying her out to LA, which led to getting signed by Mark Speigler and shooting a whole heck of a lot of award winning porn (also a brief stint in escorting, which you can read about here).

Of course, achieving your dreams at such an early age does have its downside–and in an industry like porn, which prizes youth above (almost) all, a 28 year old star is, weird as it may seem, considered over the hill. (Not by us mind you–we’d be happy to watch Asa fucking until she’s old and grey–but by porn itself.) Luckily, Asa’s smart enough to be aware of the downsides of her chosen career, and has made moves to find longevity in an industry that often burns talent out in a matter of years. Though she got famous for her gonzo prowess, she’s made the switch to more feature-based work (she’s not a Wicked contract star for nothing!). And she’s also made moves to expand her porno repertoire to include behind the camera work. If you’ve yet to check out one of the titles that Asa’s directed for Elegant Angel, well, we don’t know what you’re waiting for. (And, of course, there’s also the podcast she hosts with David Choe. We’re not sure it’s gonna suppland her porno fame and income or anything, but it sure is fun.)

Of course, no fairy tale is complete without a proper fairy tale ending–and if we know our fairy tales, they all end with a wedding. As luck would have it, Asa’s magical porn career did, in fact, lead to a magical porn wedding: in 2012 she tied the knot with fellow porn performer Toni Ribas. We’d say that they lived happily ever after–but the nice thing about being in porn is that no one’s limited to just one happy ending.

· Asa Akira (asaakira.com)
· Asa on Twitter (twitter.com)