A version of this feature appears in the July issue of AVN magazine. Click here for the digital edition.
LOS ANGELES—Ashley Aleigh admits she watched a lot of porn before she got into it herself.
“I was a big porn fan,” Aleigh says. “I watched so much porn. I would watch porn the way people would watch reality TV. I would just binge watch for hours and hours.
“And then I would of course delete my search history just in case anyone asked to borrow my phone.”
Now the tables have turned and Aleigh is the one who is coming up in tens of thousands of search histories around the world thanks to her expanding resume of sizzling performances.
The native of Northern California made her porn debut in spring of 2018, doing her first two scenes for NetVideoGirls before connecting with Brazzers director Mello, whom she credits with being her first agent and “showing me the ropes” of the adult industry.
Now more than 30 hardcore credits later, the 21-year-old stunner says, “I feel like I'm still so new to the industry.”
“There's a lot of companies that I still haven’t worked for and definitely a lot of performers I still haven't gotten my hands on,” adds Aleigh, who is represented for bookings by Mark Schechter’s ATMLA.
Back when porn still was merely a fantasy for her, Aleigh remembers being drawn to girl/girl scenes.
“Like early Riley Reid. She was so young, like right when she started,” Aleigh says. “Her and Malena Morgan and George Uhl.”
She also liked watching Canadian stud Jessy Jones.
“Jessy Jones was for sure my favorite because I remember when I met him, I think I actually cried when I met him the first time,” Aleigh jokes.
“My agent—I was telling him I’m a big fan of Jessy and then Jessy just happened to pull up in the driveway and walk in because they’re best buds and they shoot together all the time. But I didn’t really realize he was going to be there when I was doing this photoshoot with him and he just showed up and I was like, ‘Oh my god.’ He grabbed my ass.
“I couldn't believe he was right there in front of me. It was just a dream come true… And even shooting with all these people and seeing them at AVN and all these events, I'm completely starstruck. I'm like I can't believe I'm one of you guys. I get to sit next to all of you, take pictures with all of you and go to these events with all of you. They’re all so wonderful. So it's a dream really.”
One of her favorite scenes so far was her passionate throwdown with the reigning AVN Male Performer of the Year Small Hands for Kayden Kross’ Deeper.com. They tangled in a loft in downtown LA in a scene titled “Fuck Me Now,” which was unveiled in January.
Aleigh and Small Hands devoured each other in the shower, continued their scalding session in a hallway and then roared to the finish line in a bedroom.
“I absolutely had been wanting to work with Small Hands and Kayden let me choose him for the scene,” Aleigh says. “So getting to do a scene with someone that I had been like admiring from afar for so long just added to the chemistry.”
Aleigh continues, “I really had no lines. It was just whatever we felt in the moment. It was just so raw. And I think that's what made the scene so great.”
She had not met Small Hands before the scene. “He's just such a gentleman. I have nothing but great things to say about him,” she says.
Aleigh calls Kross—the two-time AVN Director of the Year—“a visionary.”
“And she’s so professional. I love that she let me do that scene,” Aleigh says. “I felt like I was on a real movie set. There was just so many people making sure everything was okay.”
Kross tells AVN she was “over the moon with the results.”
“Ashley chose Small Hands when I asked who she wanted to work with and their chemistry was palpable,” Kross says. “They had an energy that just swept the whole day up and then it was over before we knew it.
“I ended up subtweeting them during the post-production process a few weeks later. Watching the edit reminded me of how much of a difference it makes when performers are truly into each other. It just feels effortless.”
Aleigh used to follow her share of porn stars on Instagram and Snapchat before she did porn—the enterprising future star also had a premium Snapchat when she was in high school.
“I was just doing it for fun and not even really for profit,” she says. “And I was also following these porn stars on Snapchat as well, seeing what they were up to.”
Yes, her Snapchat was naughty before she realized she could monetize it.
“I just really wanted attention and I had really hot girlfriends,” Aleigh says. “I'm really close with all my girlfriends and you know, we would always change together or shower together or whatever. And I would just show it all and of course, all the boys in my school would go crazy on my Snapchat, and I actually had mine set as public so just anyone could add me and I wound up getting thousands of people adding my Snapchat.”
Aleigh says a couple of her other top scenes so far were with James Deen; and a threeway with April Snow and Isiah Maxwell. She used to masturbate to the two-time AVN Male Performer of the Year Deen back when Tumblr was full of porn.
“He's a classic Dom, daddy guy that everyone wants to bang,” she says. “So yeah, getting to work with him was just amazing.”
Aleigh, who had almost 87,000 followers on Twitter at press time in May, says she enjoys retweeting all her photos and clips that fans send her.
“I also think it's just a great way to just connect with everyone who enjoys my work,” she says. “I love interacting with the people there.”
The former high school volleyball player, who used to work at Pressed Juicery and makes “amazing smoothies,” says she doesn’t get recognized in public “because honestly, I dress so low key in person.”
“I don't even recognize me when I go out,” she says with a smile.
When she isn’t working—and there isn’t a city-wide lockdown in LA—she loves eating out.
“My biggest thing is eating—I'm a huge foodie so this whole quarantine thing is killing me because I love to dine out,” she says.
“Me and my girlfriends we will go out to eat like all the time and just try all the different restaurants in Los Angeles. So that's my main favorite hobby and definitely exercising, yoga or hiking.”
She says “sushi and tacos” are her favorite foods.
When she thinks about what’s next for her, Aleigh says, “I plan to take it all the way and just keep shooting. I have a lot of goals and a lot of companies I want to work for and a lot of performers I want to collab with.
“I still have so much to learn, and I still have so much room to grow.”
Photography courtesy of Deeper.com/Vixen Media Group
