Stoya is an American
pornographic actress
A pornographic film actor or actress, pornographic performer, adult entertainer, or porn star is a person who performs sex acts in video that is usually characterized as a pornographic movie. Such videos tend to be made in a number of dist ...
, actress, model, and writer.
Early life
Stoya was born to a
Scottish father and a
Serbian mother. As a child, she wanted to become a dancer, and started dance lessons at the age of three. She was
home-schooled
Homeschooling or home schooling, also known as home education or elective home education (EHE), is the education of school-aged children at home or a variety of places other than a school. Usually conducted by a parent, tutor, or an onlin ...
and received her high-school diploma before the age of sixteen.
Because her father worked in
IT, Stoya had access electronics and gaming equipment, through which she developed her love of technology.
"I was three when I was using
DOS
DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems.
DOS may also refer to:
Computing
* Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel
* Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicat ...
. My mom taught me how to read, and my dad taught me how to navigate DOS."
After moving to
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
, she attended a summer program at
UArts. Some of her jobs in Philadelphia included being a secretary, flier distributor, and a
go-go dancer
Go-go dancers are dancers who are employed to entertain crowds at nightclubs or other venues where music is played. Go-go dancing originated in the early 1960s at the French bar Whisky a Gogo located in Juan-les-Pins. The bar's name was take ...
. Stoya appeared in several music videos for bands that, according to her, "no one will ever hear of."
In May 2009, Stoya said that she would be moving from Philadelphia and relocating to
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
in the fall of that year.
Career
Stoya began posing for adult pictures for a friend,
which eventually led her to modelling and working for
alt-erotic websites. She chose her
stage name
A stage name is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. Such professional aliases are adopted for a wide variety of reasons and they may be similar, or nearly identical, to an individu ...
based on a shortened version of her grandmother's Serbian maiden name
and trademarked the name in 2009.
Stoya was featured in two DVD productions for Razordolls, and she made a non-sex,
cameo appearance
A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly eit ...
in two
Vivid Alt titles
before being contacted by
Digital Playground
Digital Playground Inc. is an American pornographic film studio, headquartered in Burbank, Los Angeles, California, Burbank, California. It has been called one of the five biggest porn studios and, in 2006, was described by Reuters as one of t ...
with a proposition to perform in a
hardcore
Hardcore, hard core or hard-core may refer to:
Arts and media Film
* ''Hardcore'' (1977 film), a British comedy film
* ''Hardcore'' (1979 film), an American crime drama film starring George C Scott
* ''Hardcore'' (2001 film), a British documen ...
lesbian scene with Sophia Santi. The scene in question never happened, but, in August 2007, she met with several Digital Playground representatives and was asked if she would star in a
pornographic movie
Pornographic films (pornos), erotic films, sex films, and 18+ films are films that present sexually explicit subject matter in order to arouse and satisfy the viewer. Pornographic films present sexual fantasies and usually include erotical ...
with male talent. After careful consideration, Stoya agreed.
In October 2007, Digital Playground signed her to an exclusive, three-year contract. Stoya is regarded as the company's first
alt porn
Alternative porn (also known as alt porn, alternaporn, or simply alt in context), a shortening of "alternative pornography", is a subgenre of pornography that is centered around alternative subcultures, such as goths, punks, emos, scenes, ska ...
contract girl.
The first scene that she shot for them was for ''Stoya Video Nasty'' (promoted on the DVD box as the first film featuring her engaging in heterosexual intercourse), but her first movie released by the company was ''Jack's POV 9''.
![Stoya](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/11/Stoya.jpg)
In 2009, Stoya appeared in her first mainstream crossover project as Kamikazi Shegun 5000 in the award-winning
48 Hour Film Project
The 48 Hour Film Project is an annual film competition in which teams of filmmakers are assigned a genre, a character, a prop, and a line of dialogue, and have 48 hours to create a short film containing those elements. The competition has been ac ...
"The Kingpin of Pain".
Even though Stoya was under exclusive contract with Digital Playground,
Evil Angel director
John Stagliano
John Stagliano (born November 29, 1951), also known as Buttman, is an American entrepreneur, former pornographic film actor, producer and director who founded and owns the Evil Angel pornographic film studio.
Early life and career
Stagliano gr ...
received "special permission" in 2013 to cast her in the sequel for the adult film series ''Voracious''. As of 2014, she left Digital Playground and is now focusing her career on directing. She financed and directed her first film in February 2014. On March 4, 2014, Stoya and
Kayden Kross
Kayden Kross (born 1985) is an American pornographic actress and director. She is a member of the AVN and XRCO Halls of Fame.
Early life
Kross grew up in the foothills between Sacramento and Placerville. She has described herself as "the book ...
created the pay-per-scene pornographic website TRENCHCOATx. In addition to running the site, Stoya performed in and also directed some of the films.
Stoya appears as a main cast member in the 2016 mainstream lesbian fantasy series ''
Dagger Kiss
''Dagger Kiss'' is an American television series, American fantasy adventure series created by and starring ''Girl/Girl Scene'' creator Tucky Williams. It premiered on the streaming website Tello on February 14, 2016. The eight episode series now a ...
''.
In February 2018, Stoya starred in the Serbian sci-fi film ''
A.I. Rising'' (also known as ''Ederlezi Rising'') in the role of the
android, Nimani, on a space mission with a
cosmonaut
An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...
played by Slovenian actor
. The two become romantically entwined when the cosmonaut starts to believe there might be something human inside his android companion.
In 2018, Stoya launched the website zerospaces.com with her business partner, comedian Mitcz Marzoni.
Zerospaces describes itself as a "sexually explicit media project" with videos, photosets and articles pertaining to sex and sexuality. Though Stoya indicated in February 2020 that the platform would move to a monthly release schedule in April of that year,
by July, only one 2020 issue of Zerospaces had been released.
Acting
In 2012, Stoya appeared in
Amanda Palmer
Amanda MacKinnon Gaiman Palmer (born April 30, 1976) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and performance artist who is the lead vocalist, pianist, and lyricist of the duo The Dresden Dolls. She performs as a solo artist and was also a ...
's music video for "Do It with a Rockstar". She has acted in two of
Dean Haspiel
Dean Edmund Haspiel (born May 31, 1967 in New York City) is an American comic book artist, writer, and playwright. He is known for creating Billy Dogma, The Red Hook, and for his collaborations with writer Harvey Pekar on his ''American Splendor'' ...
Off Broadway plays: ''Harakiri Kane (Die! Die, Again!)''
and ''The Last Bar at the End of the World''.
Writings
Stoya writes regular columns for ''
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
'',
''
Vice
A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character tra ...
'' and ''
The Verge
''The Verge'' is an American technology news website operated by Vox Media, publishing news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, consumer electronics news, and podcasts.
The website launched on November 1, 2011, and uses Vox Media' ...
'', along with a sex-advice column for ''
Refinery29
Refinery29 (R29) is an American multinational digital media and entertainment website focused on young women. It is owned by Vice Media.
History
Justin Stefano, Philippe von Borries, Piera Gelardi, and Christene Barberich co-founded Refinery29 i ...
''. She has published pieces in ''
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 ...
'',
''
New Statesman
The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...
'', ''
Esquire
Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title.
In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentlema ...
'', ''
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 ...
'', ''
Nylon
Nylon is a generic designation for a family of synthetic polymers composed of polyamides ( repeating units linked by amide links).The polyamides may be aliphatic or semi-aromatic.
Nylon is a silk-like thermoplastic, generally made from petro ...
'', ''
Playboy
''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother.
K ...
'', and XCritic, as well as an article in ''
Porn Studies
''Porn Studies'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering the study of pornography. It is published by Routledge and was established in 2014. The editors-in-chief are Feona Attwood (Middlesex University), John Mercer (Birmingham City ...
,'' a peer-reviewed academic journal. She published her first book in 2018, entitled ''Philosophy, Pussycats, and Porn,'' a collection of personal and critical essays.
Beginning with her June 29, 2021 ''Slate'' "How to Do It" column — which she had previously written as Stoya — she began using "Jessica Stoya" as her byline there.
Personal life
Stoya has acknowledged the importance of
social networking
A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for an ...
in her career;
she is active on
MySpace, Twitter,
Tumblr
Tumblr (stylized as tumblr; pronounced "tumbler") is an American microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and currently owned by Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a sho ...
, and various Internet fora.
In June 2009, she was reported to be dating
Marilyn Manson
Brian Hugh Warner (born January 5, 1969), known professionally as Marilyn Manson, is an American rock musician. He came to prominence as the lead singer of the band which shares his name, of which he remains the only constant member since it ...
, but they later broke up due to Manson's touring schedule. Afterwards, she dated pornographic actor
James Deen
Bryan Matthew Sevilla (born February 7, 1986), known professionally by the stage name James Deen, is an American pornographic actor and director.
He entered the porn industry in 2004 at the age of 18. He gained attention due to his relative ...
for several years. On November 29, 2015, Stoya wrote on Twitter that James Deen coercively penetrated her without
consent
Consent occurs when one person voluntarily agrees to the proposal or desires of another. It is a term of common speech, with specific definitions as used in such fields as the law, medicine, research, and sexual relationships. Consent as und ...
: Deen denied the allegations, calling them "false," "egregious," and "defamatory." Following Stoya's statement, eight other women went public with assault allegations against Deen. San Francisco-based Internet pornography studio
Kink
Kink or KINK may refer to:
Common uses
* Kink (sexuality), a colloquial term for non-normative sexual behavior
* Kink, a curvature, bend, or twist
Geography
* Kink, Iran, a village in Iran
* The Kink, a man-made geographic feature in remote east ...
dropped Deen, and the website ''
The Frisky
''The Frisky'' was a women's entertainment and lifestyle website, operating from 2008 until 2016.
In 2010, ''The Frisky'' had more than 2 million average monthly readers (as measured by comScore) making it one of the leading woman's interest si ...
'' terminated his column.
Awards
* 2008
Eroticline Award
The Erotixxx Award (''eLine Award'' or ''Eroticline Award'' until 2008) is a prize awarded in the adult film industry by German magazine ''eLine'' (established as ''EAN''), – Best U.S. Newcomer
* 2009
AVN Award
The AVN Awards are List of movie awards, film awards sponsored and presented by the American adult video industry trade magazine ''AVN (magazine), AVN'' (''Adult Video News'') to recognize achievement in various aspects of the creation and m ...
– Best New Starlet
* 2009 AVN Award – Best All-Girl Group Sex Scene – ''Cheerleaders''
[
* 2009 ]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 ...
– New Starlet of the Year
* 2009 XRCO Award
The XRCO Awards are given by the American X-Rated Critics Organization annually to people working in adult entertainment and it is the only adult industry awards show reserved exclusively for industry members.
Once every calendar year, XRCO m ...
– New Starlet
* 2012 AVN Award – Hottest Sex Scene (Fan Award) – ''Babysitters 2''
* 2014 XBIZ Award – Best Scene – Feature Movie – ''Code of Honor''
* 2018 FEST Beograd – Best Actress "Ederlezi Rising"
* 2019 XBIZ Award – Best Actress – All-Girl Release ''Talk Derby to Me''[XBIZ Award Winners](_blank)
''XBIZ
XBIZ is an American publisher of business news and business information for the sex industry.
In addition to its flagship "Xbiz.com" website, XBIZ publishes two monthly trade magazines, hosts winter and summer Trade fair, exhibition and industry ...
'', January, 2019
References
External links
Official blog
*
*
*
"From Barbie Doll to Razordoll: The Sexual Shift in Porn"
by Lauren Mayberry, '' The Skinny'', July 30, 2009.
*
Podcast Interview at Adult DVD Talk
Stoya interview (05:12)
re ''" A.I. Rising"''
(1:21)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stoya
21st-century American actresses
Alt porn
American bloggers
21st-century American writers
American female adult models
American pornographic film actresses
American people of Scottish descent
American people of Serbian descent
Living people
Actors from Wilmington, North Carolina
Pornographic film actors from North Carolina
American women bloggers
21st-century American women writers
Science fiction fans
Year of birth missing (living people)