Crazy About Kenzie: It's Easy to Fall for Porn's Petite Princess

A version of this feature appears in the December issue of AVN magazine. Click here for the digital edition.

The night she turned 18—and just hours after quitting her job at Taco Bell—Kenzie Reeves was asked a question that altered the course of her life.

Can you squirt?

Reeves was in the midst of her first shift with VIP Strippers, a highly-regarded company in the Northeast that provides entertainers for various events. The initial plan was for Reeves to shadow and learn from her new colleagues that evening as they performed at a bachelor party. But when Reeves revealed to a co-worker that she could indeed ejaculate upon orgasm, she was handed a Hitachi, led into a room occupied by the future groom and about 20 of his buddies—and told to get to work.

“Within 20 seconds,” Reeves said, “the bachelor was drenched. His shoes were literally soaked with squirt. All of his friends started going wild and showering me with money. I had never felt so wanted and so beautiful.”

Reeves laughed.

“At that moment I thought, ‘Wow, I think I’ve found my place in life.’”

Her intuition was spot on. Five years after entering the adult industry that night as a stripper, the 4-foot-11 Reeves is now flourishing as the petite princess of porn. Reeves has appeared in more than 400 scenes since her on-screen debut in 2017, making her one of the most popular starlets in the field—not just by fans who love watching her, but by colleagues who enjoy collaborating with her.

Evil Angel director Chris Streams, who has worked with Reeves extensively, said the industry currently has a small group of performers whom he’d classify as “elite.” Reeves is on that list, he said. Last month Reeves received her second consecutive nomination in the AVN Awards' most coveted category: Female Performer of the Year.

“Kenzie, along with four or five others, is at the top of our profession,” Streams said. “You won’t find anyone who doesn’t love Kenzie Reeves, and I’m talking about on-screen as well as off of it.”

Indeed, In a business often hampered by cattiness and jealousy, Reeves is regarded as one of the most upbeat, friendly people in porn. Her attitude and spirit are a breath of fresh air. When Reeves arrives on set, the room immediately fills with energy and positive vibes. Reeves maintains a low-key presence on social media and stays away from drama on Twitter. Instead, many of her posts offer compliments and support to other performers.

Reeves’ demeanor is even more impressive considering where she was just 10 years ago: sitting in a hospital room after being jumped at school, waiting for a doctor to stitch up her bloody lip.

And wondering why nobody liked her.

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***

A few hours before 14-year-old Kenzie Reeves got punched in the mouth, someone dumped a cup of sweet tea onto her head.

Reeves was less than a month into her freshman year of high school in Macon, Georgia, where she was living in foster care following a pattern of “self-destructive” behavior in the northeast caused by bullying.

Rather than improving, the harassment only worsened for Reeves in the deep south, where she said a group of white girls targeted her because she was socializing with African-Americans. People laughed and mocked Reeves when one of the bullies poured tea onto her head during lunch. And no one intervened when she was ambushed in the courtyard after school by the same band of hooligans, including one who was wearing a diamond-studded ring that split Reeves’ upper lip open when she bashed her in the mouth.

“If you look closely,’’ Reeves said, “you can still see the scar.”

By that point in her life Reeves had become accustomed to feeling like an outcast.

She’d grown up on a farm in Penacook, New Hampshire, a hiccup of a town about five miles from Concord. Her first job was castrating miniature goats for $50 a whack.

“That’s a lot of money for a 12-year-old,” Reeves said, laughing. “I thought I was set for life.”

Raised in a strict Mormon family, Reeves was prohibited from drinking caffeine. She wasn’t allowed to date or socialize with boys, and her bathing suit covered everything between her collarbone and her knees.

“I looked like a scuba diver,” Reeves said. “I was like, ‘I’m a woman. Why am I covering things up?’ They told me showing skin was un-lady-like. I didn’t understand. I wasn’t hurting anyone.

“I became the black sheep of the family. I started to rebel.”

Reeves had a tough time finding a clique in high school. She tried to be kind to people—“I was the kid who was always bringing the teacher gifts; I just wanted everyone to like me,” Reeves said—but she never could fit in. Part of that, Reeves concedes, was because she refused to adapt to social norms.

“I never understood why girls wanted to shop at Aeropostale and Abercrombie,” Reeves said. “I didn’t get it. I thought, ‘Seriously, you can’t tell me all of you like these clothes.’ I didn’t want to conform to what everyone else was doing. I was the kid who wore heavy blush and tutus to school. I was viewed as the weird kid. I wasn’t popular or even very pretty.”

Reeves’ unorthodox sense of fashion and petite stature made her a prime target for bullying. Hateful Facebook messages often brought Reeves to tears. She’d skip school on days when class projects would require a partner, because no one ever picked her. Oftentimes she ate lunch in the nurses’ office simply to avoid confrontation—or because she was too embarrassed to sit alone.

Reeves said the situation was particularly bad in the ninth grade, when bullying forced her to transfer four times in a single year. New Hampshire, Boston, Georgia … Reeves hopscotched from one school to the next, trying her best to stay upbeat.

“Kids can be so cruel,” Reeves said. “All I ever wanted was to be happy. I didn’t want to ever be sad, so I learned to get over things quickly. I actually think bouncing around like that helped me. It made me more well-rounded.”

The incident in Georgia prompted a return to New Hampshire, where Reeves enrolled in a charter school. Slowly, things began to change. Reeves’ grades improved and she blossomed into a star soccer player. At age 17 she interned at a psychiatric ward for children, hoping to use her own traumatic experiences to help others. Even in her job at Taco Bell, Reeves found a way to flourish and make a name for herself.

“I won ‘Best in Customer Service’ each year I worked there,” Reeves said. “I was always very bubbly, like ‘Hey, hey, hey … welcome to The Bell. How can I help you?’ No matter if I was making $250 bi-weekly, I always wanted to be the best at what I was doing. I was like, ‘I’m here and I’m going to try my best. I’m not going to half-ass it.’”

Reeves’ stint in the fast-food business ended on her 18th birthday, when her boss refused to grant her the night off to celebrate. Reeves quit on the spot and joined VIP Strippers along with a close friend. Every weekend, a security guard drove them to parties throughout the New England states. New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine and New Jersey.

“I absolutely fell in love with it,” Reeves said. “We’d make up our own routines and other fun games. I felt so empowered. I felt beautiful for the first time ever. I had never been ‘that girl’— the one who got all the flattering compliments from men. I made me feel good about myself.

“I never wanted it to end.”

For the first time, Reeves had a purpose in life. A direction. After 18 months she’d become the top earner at the agency and was being asked to help with advertising and promotion. Only 19, Reeves felt as if she’d peaked. She eventually became bored and craved a new challenge.

“One morning,” Reeves said, “I woke up and thought, ‘Hmmmm, what else can I do?’”

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***

Kenzie Reeves was in Florida when she called her grandmother with a simple set of instructions: Take everything you want from my apartment.

“I’m not coming home,” Reeves said.

It was the winter of 2017, and Reeves had departed New Hampshire a week earlier on what was supposed to be a quick jaunt to the Sunshine State to film her first few porn scenes. After just one shoot she was hooked. Reeves subleased her place back home, seeing no reason to return to the northeast.

“It was time to move on,” she said.

The decision wasn’t made on a whim. Reeves had long considered transitioning into porn during her stint as a stripper. She was also curious about further exploring her sexuality, as intimacy with her boyfriend had become stale and vanilla.

“Every time we had sex,” Reeves said, “I’d be like, ‘Ohhh daddy,’ and he’d stop and look at me, like, ‘What?’ I got sick of only being able to enjoy my fantasies through watching porn. I was like, ‘OK, I want to try it. I want to try porn. I already do stripping. I’m comfortable with my body. I love sex. Why not try it?’”

So Reeves contacted some agents, flew to Florida a few days later and never looked back. Reeves was upfront with family members about her new career path.

“I didn’t want to hide it,” she said. “I told them, ‘This is what I’m going to do. You guys don’t have to like it. But as my family I want you to accept it. I have one life to live and I’m going to do what makes me happy. I’m not living my life for anyone else.’”

Reeves spent less than a month in Florida before relocating to Los Angeles, where she quickly developed a reputation as one of the top new performers in the business.

“The word got out fast,” Streams of Evil Angel said. “There were literally directors from competing companies calling one another and saying, ‘You’ve gotta book this girl.’”

Reeves had long been a fan of petite star Piper Perri, who is even smaller than Reeves at 4-foot-9 and less than 90 pounds. Reeves literally broke into tears of excitement when Perri recognized her at an AVN mixer a few years ago.

Still, while Perri is a prominent name in the business, Reeves has ascended to another level.

“She’s just amazing,” Streams said. “She’s this tiny little thing, but she can do more than girls three times her size. She can deepthroat Steve Holmes straight down to the balls. It’s like, where did it all go? Then she’s like, ‘Great, now put it in my ass.’

“She’ll have one cock in her mouth and one in her ass, and you’re thinking, ‘They’ve got to be touching. She’s only four-and-a-half feet.’ I mean, what’s not to love? I haven’t performed since 2009, but I still look at her like, ‘Oh man, I wish you were into old fat guys, because goddamn you look good.’”

Reeves’ versatility as an actress has also enhanced her reputation. She’s captivating in submissive roles but also ones where she’s the aggressor.

“Even though I’m tiny I can still take charge,” Reeves said. “The other day, when a guy was jerking his dick, I was like, ‘Yeah, give me that baby gravy.’ It was just in the moment, in the heat of it. That’s what I wanted at the time, and that’s how the words came out.”

Reeves shot more than 70 scenes in her rookie year of 2017 and is now approaching 500 for her career. She’s nominated for six AVN Awards in 2020, including Female Performer of the Year and Most Outrageous Sex for an anal-themed romp with Mick Blue that featured Reeves swaddled in Saran Wrap.

According to Streams, the tease Reeves performed in his 2019 film Teen Anal—she was wearing white fishnets—was the most-watched scene in any Evil Angel production for the entire year.

Streams said he considers Reeves “one of the top 10 performers in our business right now—and for me, it’s even higher than that.” He said he’d classify Reeves in an elite group that includes Angela White, Riley Reid, Adriana Chechik, Emily Willis and Jane Wilde.

“The girls that have all the buzz right now … Kenzie is right there with them,” Streams said. "I consider them all of them No. 1. Those six girls are probably the top girls. Then it starts to separate a little bit. They’re all in the same bunch. They all have that scene where you’re like, ‘Oh my God, that’s the best thing I’ve ever seen.’”

Just as she’s separated herself on the screen, Reeves has developed a unique identity away from it. Perhaps more than anyone in business, she’s known for the upbeat aura she brings to a set. Reeves radiates energy and positivity, a trait that's much-appreciated on those long days when arrogance, entitlement or jealousy among performances can ruin the vibe of a shoot.

John O’Byrne, Reeves’ agent with East Coast Talent, said Reeves strives to “make everything perfect for everyone.” O’Byrne said he doesn’t know of anyone who doesn’t like Reeves. Whether she’s performing for a small company or in a big feature, she brings the same energy.

“Few people have her personality and her oomph,” O’Byrne said. “Her presence brings the best out of everyone. If a male talent is having an off day, she’ll find a way to reverse it.”

Veteran performer James Deen was flattered to learn that Reeves listed him as her favorite male co-star. Deen has similar feelings about Reeves. He recalled a time when he arrived on set thinking he’d be working with a different performer. But when he walked in, there was Reeves, racing across the room to jump into his arms for an impromptu make-out session.

“The director practically had to pry us apart with a crowbar,” Deen said. “I get very excited when I find out we get to work together. I fucking adore that woman.”

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***

Walk into her Los Angeles apartment, and you’ll quickly notice that one of Kenzie Reeves’ walls is covered with money.

Actually, make that Monopoly money.

Reeves spent an entire day last summer pasting phony bills from the popular board game onto a wall she uses as a backdrop for OnlyFans shoots. Another wall is decorated with roses. For variety, Reeves recently changed the paint in the kitchen and living room to white.

“Not everything could be pink,” Reeves chuckled. “I needed some normal rooms to shoot content in.”

The restrictions brought on by COVID-19 didn’t deter Reeves, who capitalized on her spring and summer in quarantine by building one of the top OnlyFans platforms in the industry. Along with transforming her residence into a virtual studio, Reeves watched YouTube tutorials on how to do makeup. She learned about lighting and camerawork and found new ways to engage with fans.

These days Reeves tries to shoot at least one OnlyFans scene a week with another performer, provided they have a fresh COVID test. She said she posts other forms of original content—solos, teases, cam sessions, photos—almost every day.

A self-described hermit, Reeves said she wakes up around 7 or 8 each morning and takes a shot of turmeric. After a quick hit or two from her bong, she cracks open a Red Bull and begins her work day.

“With this whole pandemic, you’ve got to make the best of it,” Reeves said. “For me there’s no getting down. I find that staying busy is the best thing I can do.”

In less than four years, Reeves has reached a level of success that should allow her to purchase her own home sometime in the next 24 months. Reeves said she envisions “a Barbie dream house” in Las Vegas, complete with a castle fountain in the yard, neon lights in the all-white living room—and a pink bathtub. Another room will be dedicated to fashion designer Lisa Frank, with a Paris Hilton-vibe in the bedroom. Pink boudoir, sexy burlesque. The works.

“I’m going to wait another year or two,” Reeves said. “I want to make sure my taxes are really, really good, because I don’t want to do anything with write-offs. I want to put 20 percent down, and I don’t want to be on a budget when I’m looking for a house, because I want something that I can rent out for mainstream shoots.”

Reeves’ forethought and vision are as impressive to her agent as anything she does on screen, especially in a business where so many performers make quick money and then waste it. O’Byrne said he’s represented girls who made more than $1 million in their first two years—and now they don’t have anything left.

“They’re working at Wendy’s,” he said. “They spent all their money, or they got burned out or pissed too many people off, or they got pregnant and disappeared.

“Kenzie sets goals for herself. Three-month, six-month and 12-month goals. And some even further out than that. She’s incredibly smart. Everything she does is calculated.”

That includes Reeves’ self-branding.

She’s become known throughout the industry for her animated facial expressions during scenes, whether she’s widening her eyes, crossing them or rolling them toward the back of her head. Reeves also commands attention because of her outfits and unique sense of fashion.

Reeves said she was a hippie before she got into porn, often wearing a feather in her hair along with multiple necklaces, a Grateful Dead choker and neutral-colored pants and sweaters.

“I didn’t want to develop a style that I didn’t like, just to please people,” Reeves said. “I wanted something I’d feel comfortable with. Something I’d feel sexy in and want to spend money on.

“So I reverted back to my high school years, where I wore tutus and bright colors. I dressed like I was going to a roller disco. I wanted to be a human doll. It just grew from there.”

Reeves has also been mindful about the type of bookings she accepts—or rather, the ones she turns down. Nearly four years into her career, Reeves has yet to shoot a double-penetration scene, a gang bang, a blow bang or anything with a trans performer. The key, O’Byrne said, is to keep her fans wanting more.

It isn’t always easy.

“Sometimes it’s tough to hold her back,” Streams said. “It’s like pulling the reins on a racehorse. Her mind is always working. ‘How about we get a bunch of midgets squirting whipped cream all over the place, and then they can put food in me? Or how about a 50-guy cream pie anal gang bang?’ I’m like, ‘Girl, calm down. Some stuff I’ve got to get approved.’”

Streams laughed.

“In all seriousness,” he said, “she’s been very strategic about her career. It’s smart. I admire and appreciate that. I’ve been doing this for 25 years, and I’d put her up there with the best of the best. When I’m around her, it doesn’t even feel like work.”

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Reeves doesn’t plan to slow down anytime soon.

Along with more extreme scenes, Reeves has expressed interest in filming a showcase. She has her sights set on a variety of industry awards, and she envisions becoming a MILF performer once she reaches a certain age. Reeves is also eager to explore opportunities on the other side of the camera.

“I want to start as a production assistant and then an editor,” Reeves said. “I want to pay my dues and learn everything. I want to start from the bottom and earn my way up to being a director.”

O’Byrne said he and Reeves discuss these possibilities often, usually over dinner at a nice restaurant, where Reeves drinks from a large glass of milk while O’Byrne sips a cocktail.

“What makes her great is that she absolutely loves the business,” O’Byrne said. “It sounds like a simple thing, but it makes a huge difference. She loves what she does. She’s kind of down right now because all of the awards shows are canceled, so she can’t get out and meet her fans.

“At conventions I have tell her to stop grinding on people at her booth. She just loves making everyone happy.”

O’Byrne has also noticed the kindness with which Reeves treats her colleagues. She goes out of her way to offer advice to new girls in the industry. Rarely will you see Reeves embroiled in a spat on social media.

“When I first started,” Reeves said, “there weren’t too many people that were established that reached out to me and gave me advice. I’ve found that being happy for the success of others is the key to your own happiness.

“If you’re worried about, ‘Oh no, my agent just got this new girl, and she’s blonde, too,’ you’re never going to be happy with yourself, and that’s going to affect your performance and your confidence and the way you come off to people.

“If anything, I’ve learned to love myself even more and to just be more supportive of other females, because we’re all in this together. We should all be a family.”

Speaking of family, Reeves’ relatives have been open-minded about career choice. Her mom and grandmother ask tons of questions about the industry and how things work, and they’ve even visited her in Los Angeles.

“When family members love you, that love is unconditional,” Reeves said. “It’s really nice seeing people from a really strict, religious background learn to accept this and to be really positive about it.”

Reeves has been back to New Hampshire only twice since joining the industry, and things went about as you’d expect. The girl who was heckled each day now gets asked to pose for pictures at the grocery store. The people who bullied her now ask for advice about starting premium Snapchat and OnlyFans accounts. Everyone, it seems, loves to say, ‘I was friends with her in high school.’ Reeves always responds with kindness.

“I don’t mind,” Reeves said. "I actually think it’s really cool. As you’re growing up, you never know who is going to end up doing what. The person you’re being mean to could end up being your boss. That’s why it’s smart to be nice to everyone.”

Reeves pauses.

“All I ever wanted was to be happy,” she said. “I didn’t want to ever be sad, so I learned to get over things quickly. I didn’t dwell on things or saturate my aura in negativity. I didn’t want to be like that. I don’t understand why anyone would want to be like that.

“I’m always like, ‘OK, we’re here. Let’s make the best of it. Let’s have the best day possible.’”

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Photography by BlackedRaw.com, Mr. Lucky & Chris Streams