LOS ANGELES—Mia Melano remembers emailing Greg Lansky last summer to see if he would consider helping her make her porn debut.
“I contacted Greg because I liked his work,” Melano recalled. “Then we just hit it off and got the ball rolling and I’ve just been very fortunate and very honored to work with him. It’s been such a great experience.”
The 18-year-old native of Seattle, who has been exclusive to Lansky’s Vixen Media Group from her first day in adult, achieved one of her goals on Thursday afternoon, when she was crowned the April Vixen Angel in a festive, Easter-themed ceremony at Lansky’s Studio City headquarters.
“She actually applied to Vixen herself,” Lansky said. “We didn’t recruit her. She wanted to be a Vixen Angel…. We’re very picky about who we let into the family, but we started talking to her and we saw her potential and we decided to make a deal with her.”
Melano made her Vixen debut last August in a scene with three-time AVN Male Performer of the Year Mick Blue; she has since appeared in two more Vixen scenes—one with Johnny Sins that came out on Christmas Day and most recently, a hookup with Derrick Pierce that was unveiled on April 4.
On Thursday she was flanked by fellow Vixen Angels Alina Lopez (October 2018), Brett Rossi (September 2018) and reigning Vixen Angel of the Year Teanna Trump (January 2019)—each decked out in Vixen lingerie and wearing bunny ears.
“It’s the greatest honor,” Melano told AVN. “I worked hard all year and this is just a sweet, sweet ending. Loved it. I’m very honored.”
Melano, who has also appeared on Vixen sister sites—Blacked with Jason Luv and Blacked Raw with Rob Piper—says she never pictured herself doing porn until she saw Lansky’s work.
“I just remember it was such high quality. It was just very different from everyone else—from the other content that’s out there. I was just very impressed,” Melano said.
“Before I never really considered porn, but when I saw that I thought, OK, this is really changing the game up. So I just kind of wanted to see if I could get my foot in.”
Melano, who is represented by Dave Rock’s Motley Models, said she’s planning to move to Arizona this year.
“I like a home base elsewhere just so I can kind of keep the two lives a little bit separate,” Melano said. “It kind of works out that I shoot every couple months.”
Even though Melano only has a handful of sex scenes online so far, she has attracted a passionate fan following with more than 96,000 on Twitter and another 46,000 on Instagram.
“I’m definitely a little overwhelmed,” Melano admitted. “I was not expecting that reaction at all. I’m very honored though. I love all my fans. I’m very… I don’t know—shocked really.”
Melano, who will turn 19 on May 2nd, worked as a waitress at a fine dining restaurant in Seattle before adult, saying “I was pretty innocent before this.”
She describes herself as the “shy, quiet girl” in high school.
“I guess I was kind of popular but no one really knew me,” Melano said.
Her debut scene with Blue was nerve-wracking at first.
“Oh, was I nervous,” Melano said with a laugh. “I was close to tears—not because it was a bad experience—but because I was so overwhelmed. But it turned out very well. Mick Blue was amazing and he just kind of coached me through everything and everyone was so understanding and nice. It was a good experience.”
Melano earlier this month performed her first girl/girl scene—with the March Vixen Angel Alex Grey—in Aspen, Colo.
“That went very well I think. I had a lot of fun,” Melano said. “Alex was so good to work with. She’s a professional.”
With her Vixen Angel title, Melano received a Tiffany brilliant-cut diamond necklace, a pair of custom-made Christian Louboutin red-bottom heels and Vixen lingerie. She will also be featured in an exclusive editorial photoshoot in May, when Vixen will whisk her off to Europe.
Lansky, the three-time AVN Director of the Year who crowned his first Vixen Angel in August 2016, told AVN Melano had “a unique look” that caught his attention from the start.
“And even though she had a reserved personality I could see the potential long term,” Lansky said. “That’s what I do with every person I invest time and energy in. I don’t look at them the way they are now, I look at their potential and what they can become.”
The French maestro left nothing to chance Thursday, orchestrating a pre-ceremony Easter egg hunt, bringing in four live white rabbits, a DJ and even a guy in an Easter Bunny suit as the Vixen team sipped champagne and watched the Angels twerk to the sounds of Cardi B.
The ceremony—broadcast live on Vixen’s official Instagram, has evolved.
“After every single event we do, it doesn’t matter if it’s AVN or the AVN Awards or Vixen Angel and it doesn’t matter if it’s 3 a.m. or 5 p.m., we always meet,” Lansky explained. “The whole team always meets after every event—no matter what.
“Sometimes it’s 3 in the morning and we have a meeting and we see what did we did right, what could we have done better and we improve. You’ll never see one of our events stagnant. We are always evolving.”
He said what shines through in Melano’s performances is that she’s “genuine.”
“And that’s what people are looking for,” Lansky said. “She asked me at first, ‘How should I perform? What should I do?' I said to her, ‘Just be yourself. Let your natural style come out and express yourself.’”
From left: Brett Rossi, Teanna Trump, Mia Melano, Greg Lansky & Alina Lopez
Top photo, clockwise from left: Brett Rossi, Greg Lansky, Teanna Trump, Mia Melano & Alina Lopez
Photos via Twitter @GregLansky
