Ela Darling is an American pornographic actress and co-founder of

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), e ...

company VRTube.xxx. According to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', Darling first used virtual reality technology to record an erotic scenario in 2014.

Life and career

Darling earned a

Master of Library Science The Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS), also referred to as the Master of Library and Information Studies, is the master's degree that is required for most professional librarian positions in the United States. The MLIS is a relativ ...

degree from the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...

, and worked as a

reference librarian The reference desk or information desk of a library is a public service counter where professional librarians provide library users with direction to library materials, advice on library collections and services, and expertise on multiple kinds ...

prior to becoming an actor and entrepreneur. Darling has been a speaker at several conferences focused on virtual reality. She was also one of the individuals profiled in

Allan Amato Allan Amato; (born July 18, 1974) is an American portrait photographer and film director. Career In 2005, Amato was working in advertising in New Orleans, but changed his career path after Hurricane Katrina forced him to relocate. Amato was ...

's 2016 book ''Slip: Naked in Your Own Words''. In 2014, she started VRTUBE.XXX and has been considered a pioneer and an entrepreneur in the industry of Virtual Reality erotica; an industry that was projected in 2018 to grow to $1 billion (USD) by 2020. At the 2016

South by Southwest Festival South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Te ...

, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' quoted Darling asserting that patent holders were preventing the production of teledildonic technology. In October 2017 comments Darling made about how

sex robot Sex robots or sexbots are anthropomorphic robotic sex dolls that have a humanoid form, human-like movement or behavior, and some degree of artificial intelligence. , although elaborately instrumented sex dolls have been created by a number of ...

s would affect the erotic film industry were widely repeated. In a 2017 profile of Darling, ''

Rolling Stone magazine ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its cove ...

'' described Darling's first experience filming a VR experience. Darling won the 2018

XBIZ Award XBIZ Awards are given annually to honour "individuals, companies, performers and products that play an essential part in the growth and success of adult films" and have been described by XBIZ publisher and founder Alec Helmy as being "born out of ...

for "Crossover Star of the Year".

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Darling, Ela American entertainment industry businesspeople American librarians American women librarians American pornographic film actresses American women company founders American company founders Living people Pornographic film actors from Texas Virtual reality pioneers University of Illinois alumni Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women