This is the cover story of the May issue of AVN magazine.
LOS ANGELES—Anna Claire Clouds reveals it’s not in her nature to look back.
“I’m so used to being a head-to-the-ground working person—like that’s just kind of always how I’ve been,” Clouds says. “I keep moving.”
It’s why she returned to the set a few days after the biggest night of her career on January 25, when she won 2025 AVN Female Performer of the Year along with three other trophies at the 42nd annual AVN Awards Show.
It’s why she did a high-stakes scene for Elegant Angel the day before flying to Paris to work for Dorcel in early April, when she also visited Brussels and Amsterdam and got engaged during a whirlwind 10 days.
And it’s why she is squeezing in this interview today while also preparing mentally and physically for her next double-penetration sex scene tonight for Ricky’s Room.
Just over three months have passed since Clouds solidified her place in porn history with the adult industry’s top individual award, and the gorgeous native of Nashville, Tenn., tells AVN she’s never been busier or more happy with how her career is going.
“I’ve gotten the opportunity to be in so many amazing projects,” Clouds says.
Indeed, the 2022 AVN Awards trophy girl seems poised to make 2025 another banner year as she juggles lead acting roles in major features and diversifies her resumé of gonzo performances.
The whip-smart former business major, who in February reached her five-year anniversary in professional porn, admits it took her a while to process what she achieved on that spectacular Saturday evening in January at The Theater at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.
The former touring go-go dancer also captured Best Anal Sex Scene for her performance with Zac Wild in Massive Asses 13 for Elegant Angel; and Best Gangbang Scene and Best Solo/Tease Performance for her glittering star showcase, Anna Claire Clouds: Dark Side, for Jules Jordan Video.
“My peers are the ones that make sure to always remind me of how proud they are of me,” Anna says. “So even if it hadn’t set in for me until just recently, everyone always was just so kind and always wanted to remind me, ‘Look at how far you’ve come.’”
In those rare moments when she does pause to reflect on her AVN triumphs, she says her agents Mark Spiegler and George Jiries from the venerable Spiegler Girls agency spring to mind.
“They were just so proud of me and I definitely remember that,” Anna says. “And I will always remember what it was like walking out of the auditorium and seeing everyone—just seeing their faces. I’ll definitely always remember just how extremely excited everyone was for me."
It’s true that the Hall of Fame talent whisperer Spiegler could barely contain his emotions seeing Clouds reach the pinnacle of adult not even a year after he agreed to guide her.
But the man who has represented nine of the past 12 AVN Female Performers of the Year says he knew the ambitious southern belle possessed the traits of a future porn queen.
“You could tell she had all the raw materials—she’s really pretty, she’s charming and everybody likes her—and I always say one of the biggest pluses for a girl is she’s smart,” Spiegler tells me.
“And she had the work ethic. A lot of people say they do, but she really did. So we laid out a strategy to get her where she wanted to go and I guess she liked what she heard.”
Jiries, who is Spiegler’s right-hand man, calls Clouds a “throwback” star who continues striving out of pure passion for performing, rather than solely for financial gain.
“Anna is absolutely a pleasure to work with,” Jiries tells AVN. “She’s very motivated, she always wants to do the right thing and she puts 100 percent into everything she does and you can see that on camera… She’s a delight.”
Just ask her colleagues.
Zac Wild drilled Clouds in the 2025 Best Anal Sex Scene and also was one half of her first DP with Jules Jordan—not to mention sharing six other scenes with her at press time.
“Anna Claire Clouds, what can I say?” Wild says. “She has certainly developed into one of the strongest performers in the industry in the short time she’s been performing.
“Her and I have a chemistry that keeps growing and growing with every performance. She truly entrusts me to give my best and she reciprocates my energy every time. Fucking Anna is a dream—the total package.
“Also, she’s a total goofball and super fun to be around and I think that’s what keeps our passion and chemistry growing. Our attitudes are always on the same level.
“I would work with Anna any day of the week and hope that we continue to make incredible scenes together in the future.”
The 2024 AVN Male Performer of the Year Isiah Maxwell agrees—and he would know considering he’s accumulated almost 20 credits with Clouds.
“Anna is a total-package performer and will become one of your favorites as soon as you work with her,” Maxwell says. “The energy she brings to set is incredible and compliments anyone’s style of performing. She understands how to raise the intensity level in a scene.”
There’s no disagreement from 24-year veteran Christian Clay, the 2025 AVN International Male Performer of the Year from Italy, who tells AVN that Clouds surprised him—and that doesn’t often happen.
“She is one of the greatest performers I meet in all my career,” Clay says, pointing to a scene he did with Anna in 2024 for Deeper called “Bottom Bitch Barbie” that sealed it.
“It was one of my favorite scenes—the dialogue, the acting, the sex— everything was amazing and I think she is amazing in everything of that.
“Every step she has taken has led her to this moment and her commitment, her determination and her talent were finally rewarded.
“It is a conquest that shows how much she is able to overcome every challenge with grit and passion. I look forward to seeing what the future will keep for her, but I’m sure it will be just as brilliant. Keep dreaming big—the best has yet to come!”
Clouds performed in close to a hundred sex scenes during the 2025 AVN Awards eligibility period—she’s done over 500 since her debut in 2020—and without question four of the most impactful ones came in Anna Claire Clouds: Dark Side for the Hall of Fame shot caller Jordan.
In what became a collaborative process that started with Clouds presenting Jordan with a storyboard of her ideas of what her showcase could be, she managed to deliver her first double-penetration scene, her first blowbang and her first gangbang in what she called a “once in a lifetime opportunity” that was all about staying in the moment and “trusting the process.”
In particular, Clouds entrusted Jordan to steer her to new heights on camera.
“I really wasn’t planning on doing a showcase in 2024, however after a few shoots with Anna, and her overwhelming presence at our booth for the AVN trade show, I realized she was someone I could really collaborate with on a bigger project,” Jordan tells AVN. “She had ideas and motivation I haven’t seen before in talent and was 1000 percent committed to making herself an icon of the industry.
“It was amazing to conceptualize some of her ideas mixed with mine to make this project one of my favorites ever.”
Jordan continues, “Anna took everything we could throw at her for the showcase. This was sexual determination at its fullest. She jumped right into her first gangbang and DP full force. All of the male talent was shocked that she could annihilate the set with sex, especially in her gangbang. All the guys were full-on ice cutters that day, nothing was going to stop it.
“I was surprised at the volume of orgasms she had while committing to the most intense sex that exists, with top-tier co-stars. She was living for the moment every scene.
“She truly has an amazing fanbase that loves her raw sexual heat combined with her incredible looks and bod and fans know and can tell this is real sex performed to the full capacity this sexual athlete can take. Her personality and looks really make Anna a true superstar who is here to stay.”
Clouds credits Jordan with inspiring her to elevate the showcase.
“Jules wanted me to be as hands-on as possible,” she says. “He said, ‘Tell me what you want and let’s try to make it happen. If I can’t make it happen I’ll let you know, but you might as well tell me because we could very possibly do it.’
“So Jules was a huge part of the reason why I was able to do any of the stuff that I was able to do.”
The versatile storyteller Ricky Greenwood knows how Clouds handles her business as well as anyone. He has already directed her for Dorcel, Digital Playground, Parasited and Pure Taboo and there are many more scenes on the way from Clouds under his direction.
“Anna is a natural, I really like to work with her,” Greenwood tells AVN. “Her peformance looks natural and looks like she loves what she’s doing. I don’t ever have the feeling she’s there to play a game. She always gives you a performance that is authentic. You feel that she’s really into what she’s doing and wants to do great.”
Greenwood adds, “You can also ask her to go to a place that she’s never been before and you know she will be willing to take the risk and try. I like that in a performer.”
So does the reigning Male Performer of the Year Vince Karter, who participated in the AVN Award-winning, nine-man gangbang finale to Dark Side in which Clouds is seen emerging from a cage for the sensational throwdown.
“To describe Anna, I’d say she’s truly multi-talented,” says Karter, the prolific French star who moved to LA in 2023 and captured three AVN Awards in January. “She’s able to move effortlessly from a strong, emotionally driven role-play performance to an intense, hardcore [boy/girl anal] scene. That kind of range—and the ability to adapt across so many different styles—is incredibly impressive. And she excels in every one of them.”
Karter continues, “When I first worked with her, it was in a boy/girl scene, and the passion and intensity she brought was unforgettable. Since then, I’ve seen her in a variety of projects, and I’ve been consistently impressed by her acting skills.”
“Most recently, during the gangbang scene for Jules Jordan, she absolutely blew me away,” Karter tells AVN. “Managing so many guys while staying in control—technical, sexy, horny and completely in character—very few performers can do that.
“She absolutely deserves her title this year. She owns it.”
Clouds—who was an AP student in high school that received multiple scholarship offers—hustled all throughout college and in the years that followed, modeling, dancing, stripping, collaborating and monetizing her social media.
“I was working so hard,” she recalls. “I still do work really, really hard, but I have a little bit more of a structured schedule. Back then I made my own schedule. Every single thing I did was out of my own pure drive and just determination.
“It was a time online when Vine was a thing, so comedy and adult were kind of an interesting mix together. So I did some of that. I mean I’ve worked with a lot of collabs with several creators and traveled a lot. And I really enjoyed my time because I had a lot of free will because of my work. It was just absolutely wonderful. I still have that free will. It’s just a little bit more structured, of course, and I don’t have to decide what I’m doing every single day.”
A free spirit who traveled around the Southeast EDM circuit with a go-go dancing troupe during her early 20s, Clouds “on a whim” moved from Nashville to Colorado Springs, Colo., when she was 22. She made her next stop Las Vegas to continue her online sex work “because I thought that was a good, happy medium between like the whole jump to LA.”
“I’ve been doing adult work online since I was 21,” says Clouds, who turned 30 in February. “When premium Snapchat was a thing I rode that train until it kind of slowly fell off. So I’ve been online doing videos before I got into porn. I think I’d recorded well over 200 videos for my own stuff.”
She broke into mainstream porn in February 2020 just prior to the COVID shutdown, but because of the sporadic shooting during that first year of the pandemic, it was a slow build. By the end of 2021, however, Clouds already had amassed almost 150 credits and she was on her way to stardom.
Anna tells me that early on she had a different idea about adult performing.
“Back in the day I thought what makes a great sex scene is just like really good fucking, just really good, really hard, really rough fucking. Because I was more of a viewer, you know,” she explains.
“But now what I would say creates a great sex scene is the ability to sell desire. Because we’re not selling sex, we sell desire. We sell a feeling of desire that might not be able to be created just with someone’s imagination.
“So I think that the sex, of course, is a huge part of selling that desire but there’s a lot more to it now.
“The main difference is before I thought it was just the sex and now I think that I know exactly what porn is and what form of entertainment we are, and we’re the sellers of desire.”
Photography by @darencornell
