This feature appears in the March 2025 issue of AVN magazine.
LOS ANGELES—Ada Lapiedra reveals she was at home with her mother when she heard she had won the 2025 AVN Best New International Starlet award.
“And a colleague from there told me,” she says.
“I thought he was playing a joke on me until he sent me the link and I saw that it was true and between shouts and cries of joy both my mother and I spent an incredible day after the news,” Lapiedra tells AVN, adding that her mother is her biggest fan.
The former mainstream model from Lleida, the ancient city in Spain’s northeastern Catalonia region, enjoyed a breakout year in 2024, telling AVN the victory on Jan. 25 at the 42nd annual AVN Awards Show came as a complete shock.
“I wouldn’t even know what to say. I didn’t expect to win it at all. I already felt special just by being nominated,” says Lapiedra, who triumphed in one of the most competitive categories of the event. “Winning it reminded me of why I started and it has given me the strength to keep working above all else.”
She continues, “It gives me confidence in myself. And above all I am grateful to be nominated and to win—very grateful. Both with the producers who have counted on me and with the actors and actresses that I have had the luxury of working with. It means that day by day I have been able to overcome all my fears, travel alone, meet all kinds of people and learn to manage my emotions…”
Ada, who moved to Barcelona to study when she was 17, worked for several years in the banking industry until she decided to leave it all behind to pursue her dream of becoming a model—something she did professionally for 10 years.
She performed her first sex scene in October 2022 with no expectations other than wanting to see if she liked it. She took things slow, recording about 15 scenes by the summer of 2023—and last year she showed the world what she could do.
“I started 2024 being clear that this was the year to start traveling for real and in January I went to Budapest,” Ada explains. “There I had the opportunity to work with very good production companies, actors and actresses, and to be able to show each one of them that for me, this industry is much more than just recording and making money.
“It’s about learning every day and fighting for my dreams, which is to show or teach the good part of the industry. That being an actress does not invalidate you in anything and you are just as valid as anyone else.
“That if you know where you want to go, you can just take the right steps.”
Ada tells AVN she doesn’t have a favorite scene.
“Each one is so different and I enjoy them all so much,” Lapiedra says. “Each scene is a new adventure, and so far I have found them all to be a wonderful adventure. But my scenes with Sex Art I love as they express so much feeling and I feel so comfortable with the team and the results every time.”
Ada explains that now three years after her first-ever porn movie that she feels like a totally different performer.
“I started at a bad time and for a very clear reason and I am proud to be on the path I am on to fulfill it,” she continues. “Now I feel stronger, more empowered, more capable. Every job I do makes it all add up. I could say that I am myself, but an improved and updated version.”
With that said, she admits it’s hard to say what is the best part about being an adult performer.
“I think this is the most difficult question to answer, I think that although the industry has changed a lot, society still sees it as in the old days,” Ada reasons. “For me it’s like being a model, which was my previous job, or working in a bank office, as I have always worked. I feel very comfortable in front of the cameras. That’s true and I love discovering new things about the industry every day. I wish I had a speaker or a place to talk about this and so many topics that I would like to convey to many people.”
A resident of Barcelona for over eight years, Lapiedra tells AVN she would only relocate if it were for a special job offer because she loves living close to her family.
This year she plans to shoot for Brazzers for the first time “which for me is a dream.”8
“And Erika Lust, which of course is another dream to fulfill,” Ada says. “And I am very happy with my works this month and all the ones I have done.
“The plans for this new year are to continue working as I have been and to be able to show everything I want to teach through my work and my voice with my experience.”
