LOS ANGELES—Sofi Ryan served coffee in Seattle wearing next to nothing before she started stirring up the porn world.
Excitable and adventurous, Ryan often went above and beyond for her job as a bikini barista, but not everyone appreciated her enthusiasm.
“I actually was arrested while I was being a bikini barista for wearing butt plugs and doing shows, like flashing my boobs and all that,” Ryan says. “Sometimes we would be naked. Those are the good old days.”
Ryan and her co-workers wore fishnet stockings, did champagne showers and even got naughty in baby pools at various coffee stands around the city, where bikini baristas originated in the early 2000s.
“We had so much fun,” Ryan recalls. “It got to the point where I would sell my Snapchat and one of my customers came up to me one day and said, ‘I’m not renewing.’ And I was like, ‘Why?’ And he said, ‘Because all of your stuff is on PornHub.’”
It was at that point that Ryan, who once held retail jobs at places such as Justice and Forever 21, began entertaining the thought of a porn career.
“I’ve done modeling for about three years and was a barista for like seven to 10 years,” she says. “And then I was camming for like three years as well.”
Always a go-getter, Ryan last Fall corresponded with LA Direct Models about coming to LA to do solo and girl/girl scenes, but despite grabbing owner Derek Hay’s attention, an agreement didn’t come to fruition at that time. Then through a mutual photographer friend in March, Ryan landed an in-person meeting with Hay at his Las Vegas headquarters, where they discussed the possibilities of working together, including Ryan doing boy/girl scenes and more. The 24-year-old brunette signed with the agency that day and since then her services have been requested by dozens of studios and websites.
“It’s been like the best thing I’ve probably done in my life to be honest,” Ryan says. “I needed change and I needed a way to get out of Seattle, so this was a perfect way to do it.”
Now Ryan, who cammed for MyFreeCams and shot for Playboy Plus three times under the stage name Hailey Lynzz before porn, is on her way to becoming one of the industry’s breakout performers in 2017. She landed her first box cover in May for New Sensations’ A Hot Wife Blindfolded 3 and has already been featured on Vixen and Brazzers, as well as in scenes for Mike Adriano/Evil Angel, Hard X and LeWood Productions, among many others coming soon.
“I think she has enormous potential,” LA Direct’s Hay tells AVN. “She’s obviously very attractive. She got her start with shooting for Playboy Plus of course. She really loves this business, so she’s got this super enthusiastic attitude about it, but by no means does being an unusually attractive girl mean that’s all it’s going to take.
“She understands it’s going to take a lot of hard work and effort and it’s kind of refreshing to see that right from the get-go. We’ve had a tremendous start with her.”
Within two weeks of Ryan joining LA Direct, Larry Flynt’s Hustler Club in Cleveland reached out to Hay about flying Ryan in to headline their club, booking the new starlet for her feature dance debut for the weekend of June 15.
“That’s unheard of to be out feature dancing within three months of beginning your career,” Hay says. “They were very pleased, so we’ve fast-tracked her into that as well.”
Born in Kansas City and raised in Arizona and Seattle, Ryan says she likes porn because “honestly, all the guys treat you like a princess.”
“They’re just like so happy to see you and they’re so sweet,” she says. “Everyone on the crew is so sweet. I’ve never found a group of people that have just been so nice and so awesome and are just genuinely happy people. And so I really like that about the industry. I also like to have sex, so it’s a lot of fun.”
Modeling comes naturally for Ryan, who says she still holds the record for most ‘likes’ and ‘views’ on her Playboy Plus pictorials.
She says some of her most memorable scenes include her wild hook-up with Chad White for Brazzers.
“I think it’s called the 'Preacher’s Wife Gone Wild’ or something. That was really funny,” Ryan says. “Like I’m such a klutz, so I hit my head on the table while I was giving him head. My head started bleeding. But it was so funny because I just was laughing so hard and I had no clue when they were like, ‘Do you know your head’s bleeding?’ I was like, ‘What, no, I didn’t know that!’”
She also pointed to her encounter with Xander Corvus for Vixen called “He Couldn't Resist.”
”That was my favorite. Because everyone was amazing. It was so much fun. They treated me like I was a queen. I loved it,” Ryan says.
“I have a lot of scenes that are coming up that are going to be really awesome.”
Ryan watches herself each time a new scene drops.
“I watch it every time so I can learn and see what I do like and what I don’t like and what looks ridiculous on camera and what I think looks good. Or what I can improve on if I’m giving a blowjob, what I can do to make it better,” she admits. “Or if I’m doing something in sex, what I could do to make it better. So I’m always watching myself.”
But no one is complaining about what Ryan does when the cameras are rolling—rather it's the opposite.
“I want to work with everyone,” she says. “Or everyone who’s cool.”
Ryan says she knew of fellow LA Direct performer Chloe Amour before she got into porn because both shot for the same photographer.
“I actually met her like a week ago and it was really cool. We actually bonded. She’s so awesome—such a sweetheart, just so beautiful and gorgeous,” Ryan says. “I really look up to her as a role model.”
With new scenes coming out with Mick Blue, Mofos and virtual reality content in the works from Naughty America, which signed her to an exclusive VR deal, Ryan's momentum is only building. She plans to relocate to LA in November but for now is traveling back and forth about two weeks out of each month.
In fact, she says she’d like to work in the industry for the long term.
“My main goal out of all this when I’m done with porn is I have had everyone in my family have cancer. And ever since I was little I’ve always wanted to help people, whether it’s terminally ill patients, cancer patients, whatever I can do—if you’re blind. Whatever I can do I want to help you,” explains Ryan, who has studied skincare and cosmetology and went to school to be an aesthetician.
“So my goal after this is I’ve always wanted to create a salon where it’s organic products, vegan. You can go and get a massage. You can get your hair done, your makeup done. You can go and just really feel like you’re not sick. So if you have cancer you can take off that wig. Or if you have breath tanks you can go in there and not get stared at, not feel like you’re being judged.
“And I want to create an environment also—I’m a firm believer in medical marijuana—so I want to have a medical marijuana dispensory in there. So it’s an all-in-one shop only for cancer and sick, ill patients that you can go to. It’s like a retreat. You can stay as long as you want and just really feel like you’re beautiful, or that the stress is gone almost.
"So that’s my whole goal out of all this.”
Photos by Rick Garcia
