Did you know that making money in porn is tough? Yep. Really. Especially if you are a woman. Apparently, there are far too few men that can perform well on camera, so they always get paid much more than the women for scenes. We guess the gender pay gap applies to porn too!
There are only a few pornstars that will make bank, and these will normally be the ones that do work outside the world of porn. Many of the top pornstars have had mainstream success. But who are the richest pornstars?
On this page, we have 23 of the richest pornstars. While it is impossible for us to know their net worth, it is evident that these people are absolutely loaded.
Asa Akira
Asa Akira has starred in well over 500 porn scenes and made a healthy sum of cash when Wicked Pictures signed her up to an exclusive contract. Asa Akira is by far the most successful Asian woman in porn. She has won countless awards (including AVN Performer of the Year) and works for PornHub whenever they have an award show. Like many of the richest pornstars, Asa Akira has had a small amount of mainstream success with multiple cameos in TV shows, perhaps her most famous being a cutaway on Family Guy.
Gianna Michaels
Gianna Michaels has been kicking around in the porn business since 2004. She has starred in hundreds of scenes, and she is often in high demand, demanding thousands of dollars per scene. She has sex toys named after her. Even now, the porn DVDs that she stars in are huge sellers (yes, people still buy porn DVDs). She hasn’t had success outside of porn, but we wouldn’t be surprised if she attempted to break into the mainstream when the porn work dies out, although we doubt that is going to be happening any time soon.
Belladonna
It was clear that Belladonna was going to make a ton of cash in porn from her very first porn scene. It isn’t often that a girl makes her first scene a gang bang with a ton of guys. She quickly went on to record over 300 scenes. She has also done a bit of directing. This is a woman that has had a touch of mainstream success too, which has no doubt contributed to her income. She has been interviewed on TV, and she has even starred in a couple of TV shows. Nowadays she is directing non-porn films and, by all accounts, they are pretty good.
Jayden Jaymes
Jayden James has worked with a load of massive porn production companies. She is a big name for Brazzers, for instance. This means that she has commanded a rather healthy pay packet there. Outside of porn, she runs a comedy podcast (which does focus on the adult industry) and has even developed her own line of male fashion, with the range likely to be expanded in the very near future. She has also invested heavily in property, particularly vacation property. Anybody who knows real estate knows that she is onto a winner there.
Audrey Bitoni
Audrey Bitoni has seemingly disappeared from the world of porn, at least her official website is not up. She still has a ton of content with the likes of Brazzers out there, and we do encourage you to watch it. She puts on a fantastic show in all of the scenes that she is in. Audrey Bitoni didn’t actually get rich from porn, nor for what she did after. Her father is a wealthy real estate developer, and we assumed that this is what has helped Audrey Bitoni fund her lifestyle.
Tori Black
When Tori Black was an active pornstar, she broke records. She was the very first woman to win AVN Performer of the Year for two years in a row. When that happened, every porn company wanted to work with her. They wanted the best porn actress on their team and, at that point, she was able to command astonishingly high rates for her work. Nowadays, she is spending a ton of her time doing some mainstream work, just the odd cameo here and there. If she ever returned to the business then you can bet your bottom dollar that people would throw more cash than ever at her.
Sunny Leone
Many of the people reading this page may remember Sunny Leone from her time in porn. She was wildly successful, and you could easily write a book on the adventures that she had. We are sure that she was one of the richest pornstars at the time. However, her real cash came from what happened after she left the business. Before 2012, she already had a few mainstream projects under her belt. She quit the business in 2012 and was quickly starring in big-budget Bollywood movies and TV products. Now most people in India know her more for that than the work that she did in porn.
Evan Stone
Evan Stone is one of the most successful men in porn, winning countless awards. Whenever people put together lists of the most successful men in porn, he is frequently the only guy to get a mention. That’s how popular he is. He gained a little bit of fame one year when a short clip of his porn film was accidentally broadcast during the Super Bowl (although, thankfully only in limited markets). Despite being on the older side of things, he is still actively working in the business and commanding some big pay packets.
Sasha Grey
When most people think of the richest pornstars, they think of people like Sasha Grey. She is one of the few people that has gone on to major mainstream success, not just a couple of bit parts here and there. Obviously, she has made a lot of money in porn. However, she has also starred in several TV shows, movies, and video games. Each of those has generated a nice, tidy sum of cash for her. She has even written books and produced music. Talk about multi-talented!
Evan Seinfeld
Evan Seinfeld is another multitalented guy. Not only has been in porn, but he has also sang in a rather successful metal band (Biohazard). You may also remember him from the TV show Oz where he played the character “Jaz Hoyt” for 40 episodes. He has had plenty of other TV success on top of this. Nowadays, he seems to be making a healthy chunk of change from the app ‘Its My Girl’ which allows people to chat to their favorite pornstars (for a fee, of course). It is news, but it is attracting a lot of interest.
Jenna Haze
Most of Jenna Haze’s career has been in adult entertainment. This means that a good chunk of her cash comes from porn, although nowadays she is also making a decent amount of money doing striptease shows and other related things. She now runs her own porn production company. Despite all of this, most people probably know Jenna Haze from her bit role in Superbad, although she has also had a few cameos in other movies, tv shows, and music videos.
Lexington Steele
Lexington Steele trained as a stockbroker. We have no idea how much he made, but unless he was terrible at his job we can imagine it was a tidy penny. He was only a stockbroker for a short amount of time, though. He transitioned to porn shortly after where he has had a wild amount of success. He has been in 1,300+ porn videos, and at at least $1,000 per scene (he is likely making much more than this), we can only imagine he has a bit of cash in the bank. This is on top of a few cameo appearances he has made in TV shows like Weeds.
Katie Morgan
Katie Morgan has had a decent amount of success in the porn business, and a recent re-return netted her a big payday. Outside of porn, she has made money from her podcast. However, she is probably best known by many for her appearances in various HBO TV shows that discuss sex, the adult industry, etc. She also starred in the movie Zack and Miri Make a Porno, which no doubt lined her pockets a bit. Her podcast is still pumping out regular episodes, and she is doing a dash of porn every now and then. She is one of the richest pornstars and she is probably going to be set for life!
Bree Olson
In 4 years, Bree Olson starred in a whopping 600 porn films. Although, she has now left the industry and is staunchly against it. She has appeared in an episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians. She was a featured player in The Human Centipede 3 (yep, they made 3 of those movies) and has regularly appeared on the web series Funny or Die where she makes hilarious clips. She even lived in Charlie Sheen at some point. She has claimed she is broke, but we are sure that her 600 porn films kept her bank account full for a while.
Ron Jeremy
Alright. We have to put what Ron Jeremy has done to one side here. The guy is an awful human being and he is, quite rightly, in prison. However, this isn’t going to detract from the fact that he is one of the most successful male pornstars of all time. He has made a tidy sum of cash starring in countless porn films and, for many companies, he was the go-to guy. He made a lot of money at conventions, and a touch of mainstream success. Luckily, he can’t spend the money that he has earned now.
Maria Takagi
Maria Takagi is a porn star that you may not have heard about. She was only really successful in Japan, and she was just in the business for a short while. After breaking away from the world of porn, she found herself featured in countless Japanese TV shows and movies. Nowadays, you will often find her working as a TV host in Japan.
Traci Lords
Traci Lords is a porn star that you may have heard of, but you may not have seen perform. This is because the vast majority of her porn films were banned due to the age she was when she filmed them. This never stopped her having mainstream success, though. She has been in a lot of TV shows and movies. She has talked extensively about her rather short life in porn. She has released music, and she even has her own fashion line. For somebody who is so successful for being an adult porn star, the vast majority of her career (and her earnings) are not related to porn at all.
Jesse Jane
Jesse Jane got started in porn on a whim. She gave Digital Playground a call and they wanted to snap her up. Her success at Digital Playground, which came thick and fast, allowed her to launch her own line of sex toys. These are still selling today and, no doubt, making a sizeable amount of money for her. She has had several mainstream TV and radio appearances. She is also a columnist for various magazines, or at least she was. She has really diversified her income sources. A couple of years ago, she came out of retirement and got paid a ton of cash by Blacked.com for this.
Peter North
Peter North has been in a whopping 2,500 porn flicks. He is now heavily into porn directing and producing, with many people queuing up to work on Peter North productions. On top of all of this, he has written a highly successful book where he teaches men how to bed women. If there was one man with experience to do that, it is Peter North.
Tera Patrick
Tera Patrick starred in a lot of porn films when she was active in the business. There was barely an award that she didn’t pick up too, which contributed to an even bigger income for her. Since she has left the industry, she has hosted several porn award shows, starred in mainstream TV shows, and even written a book.
Jenna Jameson
One thing that you often see thrown around the porn industry is the term “the next Jenna Jameson”. What does this mean? Well, it means that the person has the mind and body to be wildly successful, not just in porn but in the mainstream. Jenna is well known for her porn. However, she is a household name for TV show appearances, movies, books, and various business ventures. This is probably one of the most business-minded people to work in porn and we wouldn’t be surprised if she is the richest pornstar out there.
Nikki Benz
Ukranian pornstar Nikki Benz produced some fantastic porn in her time, but she is perhaps best known for her attempt to defeat Rob Ford and become a mayor in Canada. She didn’t succeed, but it did bring her to mainstream success. Nowadays, you will find her campaigning for gay and women rights.
Lisa Ann
Lisa Ann is classed as the most successful porn performer in history. We suppose this is due to the sheer number of performances that she put on, the mainstream success she has had, and the money that she has made. She is also a porn talent agent and helps to mentor some of the girls new to the industry. Every so often, you may catch Lisa Ann hosting a radio show.
As we said at the start, these are the richest pornstars. While we can’t tell you how much they have made, we would be willing to bet that most, if not all, of these are millionaires. Some from porn, others outside of porn. They are probably loaded for life, though.
