This is the cover story of the August issue of AVN magazine.
LOS ANGELES—Willow Ryder holds a PhD in booty control with a license to twerk.
She can jiggle it. She can make it clap. She can bounce it from side to side and she can flex it.
If twerking was a team sport, Ryder would be captain.
“I love working out, so I weight lift and then I love taking dance classes,” Willow says. “I take twerking dance classes.
“Growing up I played sports so I’ve always been interested in moving my body and doing different things like that.”
Now when she moves her famous posterior, it’s become must-see TV.
The curvaceous native of Nashville, Tenn., in only three-and-a-half years has emerged as one of adult entertainment’s brightest young stars, racking up more than 300 credits, capturing two industry awards and landing the first-ever performing contract with the surging gonzo studio, Ricky’s Room.
And the good news for her global fanbase is that she’s still only warming up.
“I’ve always said that I’m gonna be in this for as long as possible,” Willow says. “I just have a lot of fun with it.”
It shows.
Thanks in part to her humble attitude, girl-next-door looks and the way she commands the screen in her signature cowgirl position—among others—the 26-year-old former esthetician has become about as sure a thing as it gets in porn.
Just ask Ricky Johnson, who was compelled to sign Willow to a one-year, multi-scene deal in May, after numerous crowd-pleasing performances for Ricky’s Room.
“Willow is a superstar,” Johnson tells AVN. “She’s done great with the brand. She was great from the first day we shot her and she has continuously brought her A game every single time.”
Johnson first encountered Ryder in a scene for Reality Kings in 2022—and he realized then that she was built different.
“She’s always had that ‘it’ factor,” Ricky continues. “So signing her as our first contract girl was a no-brainer to me. There are a lot of projects I have coming up that I want her to be in. She was the first feature for the brand.”
Ryder proved she could play in the big leagues in her Ricky’s Room star showcase, Willow’s Room, in 2024, when she threw down for her first gangbang, taking on five guys in a scene titled, “Bang, Bang, The Gang’s All Here.”
She also squared off with Johnson in a one-on-one anal; did a threesome with Ricky and her close friend Ameena Green; and delivered in a 3-on-3 orgy alongside Baby Gemini and Anna Claire Clouds; in addition to the 5-on-1 tussle with Chocolate God, Hollywood Cash, Derek Savage, the late Jay Hefner and Johnson.
Willow’s Room also marked the first time that Ryder got involved in pre-production for a movie, giving her input on wardrobe, make-up, and her choice of partners, among other things.
Ryder’s career trajectory has aligned with the rise of Ricky’s Room so much that the contract seems like a natural progression.
“It’s a really cool feeling,” Willow says. “I’ve always wanted to be contracted with a company and the fact that it’s with Ricky just makes it even more amazing. I love what he stands for and just how he makes his scenes and everything.
“I just believe our style and the way that we have sex is really beautiful together.”
Johnson, a native of Inglewood, Calif., who is closing in on his first decade in porn as one of the business’s most respected pros, tells AVN his plans include collaborating on another showcase with Ryder as well as featuring her in a Ricky’s Resort production.
“She has a chill vibe,” Ricky says. “She’s not an extravert; she’s not loud but she’s funny and goofy when you get to know her. She wouldn’t be the person saying she’s the GOAT, I’d be the person saying she’s the GOAT. She’s super humble.”
The feeling is mutual.
“All my scenes with Ricky’s Room are definitely my favorite,” Willow says.
A gymnast and track athlete in high school who competed in the 200- and 400-meter dashes and the long jump, Ryder did shifts as an esthetician for more than three years before she ventured into adult when she was 22.
Willow reveals she dabbled in sex work—she enjoyed doing naughty photos for starters—and eventually met a producer through SexyJobs, creating some custom content with him.
“And he told me, ‘You have a great look for mainstream’ and I had never even imagined doing mainstream porn at all, like I never really knew about it. But he sparked the idea in my head,” Ryder recalls. “So I did my research and I was like, OK, that was something that I was willing to try.”
Enter veteran agency owner and talent manager, Brian Berke, who launched AMA Modeling in South Florida 21 years ago and has helped guide the careers of several accomplished models.
“I had a friend who was a producer in Tennessee who called me and said, ‘I have the perfect girl for you,’” Berke tells AVN. “He called me with Willow on the phone and we arranged for her to go to Arizona to shoot her first scene and then she came to Florida and she lived here at the model house for a little while.
“She was always wonderful. She was always focused on what she wanted to do and had a great attitude and wanted to be successful. She wasn’t going to stop at anything.”
Berke adds, “We were able to not fuck up perfection, that’s the best way to describe it. We always knew she could be a star and we put the right pieces of the puzzle together and they fit and she blew up.”
Ryder says her first scene for ExploitedCollegeGirls in Arizona was with Isiah Maxwell, the seasoned stud who won the 2024 AVN Male Performer of the Year award.
“I felt like it went really good,” says Willow, who now resides in southeastern Florida and makes regular trips to the West Coast. “From the jump, I’ve always felt super comfortable on camera because I’ve always liked being on camera, being the star. I remember the director asking me, ‘Are you nervous at all?’ And I’m like, ‘No, not really.’ I just felt super confident.”
Maxwell noticed the swag.
“I had a great first impression of Willow because she had veteran confidence on her first day,” Isiah, the popular native of Cleveland, Ohio, who started his porn career in 2011, tells AVN. “Most new talent needs direction, but she picked it up fast and knows what she wants. It was obvious to me she was in control of her journey to her destination—which is the top.”
Ryder returned home after that first scene, waited a few months and then moved to Florida to dig in. Her second scene was an anal outing with Mitt Aziani for Backroom Casting Couch, which is part of the Arizona-based ExploitedX Network.
“I actually I had a good feeling that anal would do well for me only because I have a nice butt and I know how to work it,” Willow admits. “So yeah I did it right out of the gate.”
What makes her anal prowess perhaps more impressive is she only had one experience off camera before doing it in the movies.
Ryder says it was about six months into her career when she began traveling to LA—and everything changed.
“I’d really say that things started taking off for me after I started working with Mike Adriano,” Willow says. “Me and him work really well together. He already has a huge, established fanbase and that’s when they really started to highlight my butt. I think that’s what really did it.”
Adriano, the veteran performer, director and studio owner whose blue-chip network of sites includes Nympho, TrueAnal, Swallowed, AllAnal, AnalOnly and DirtyAuditions, tells AVN he began shooting Ryder in the summer of 2022 and now has released about 20 scenes with her.
“Her performances are always enthusiastic and energizing,” Adriano says. “She’s always consistent when it comes to giving it her best. As far as stamina and endurance she’s really up there, I mean she can ride really fast for a long time! Which is actually quite hard to do for a lot of models.”
Adriano continues, “Her personality is always bubbly and exciting but she’s always professional. Obviously, she looks amazing and she’s a dream girl for every ‘ass-man.’ She has one of the best asses in the industry and she definitely knows how to use it.
“I’m biased in my answer because I love anal, but the fact that she has such a nice ass and does anal so well is a perfect combination.”
Adriano says it’s difficult to determine his favorite scene with Ryder because “she can do everything well, she’s versatile.”
“She shot some incredible BJ scenes and boy/girl as well, so it’s hard to pick one, but I would say some of her anal threesomes were pretty mind-blowing,” Mike adds.
Ryder also says her outings for Hard X—such as when she took on Zac Wild under the direction of Mason in Hardcore Bombshells 3—stand out as some of her strongest work.
“I feel really beautiful in those scenes—the way I look and then also the chemistry between me and the talents,” Willow says. “Mason’s definitely intense, but she brings out the best in me.”
“I absolutely adore Willow,” Mason tells AVN. “From the moment I met her, I knew she was destined for greatness.
“From her stunningly beautiful looks to her glorious backside, Willow is the total package. Combine that with her relentless sexual energy and you have an undeniable superstar.”
Fran Amidor, the AVN Hall of Fame executive for the LA-based 101 Modeling—the sister agency of Berke’s AMA Modeling— tells AVN she first met Ryder in the summer of 2022.
“I was immediately drawn to her uniqueness and her mild manner,” Amidor says. “We bonded immediately, I appreciated that she was authentic and grounded at such a young age. Willow is a total professional and lights up the screen with her presence.
“We have a strong bond, not just professionally but personally. I admire her honesty and integrity and she genuinely cares for people and the well-being of everyone.”
Amidor continues, “Willow is the consummate professional who turns up on set ready to work. I never get anything but glowing reports from producers and directors; she’s a talent that embraces her roles with a special spark in her eyes and a fantastic attitude.
“I have stood behind Willow in the choices she has made in her career and expect her to continue being the effervescent and remarkable performer that she is.”
Without question, the industry has taken notice or Ryder’s considerable talents.
In May, Ryder won the Top Anal Performer trophy at the 7th annual Pornhub Awards on the Sunset Strip; she has amassed more than 200 million video views and 105,000-plus subscribers on Pornhub—and at press time her profile page had been visited 17 million times.
Willow also won the Vicki Chase Orgasmic Oralist Award at the 41st annual X-Rated Critics Organization (XRCO) Awards on May 25 in Hollywood.
“It really means a lot to me,” Ryder says. “I’ve really worked my ass off. So to be rewarded for all my hard work is a great feeling.”
Willow received a nomination for Best New Starlet for the 2024 AVN Awards Show and followed that with six nominations for the 2025 ceremony, including a nod for Female Performer of the Year.
“When it comes to awards, I never really expect anything. I just hope for the best, but I don’t expect to win an award,” Ryder says.
“Looking back, it’s really crazy actually, because when I started in the beginning I wasn’t getting booked a lot. So it made me super nervous that I wasn’t going to do well in the industry. So the fact that I’ve proven myself wrong just feels really good.”
And she says there isn’t any one scene or accolade that stands above the rest.
“I’m really proud of it all, actually,” Willow concludes. “Just everything that I’ve done. Every scene that I do I bring 110 percent effort. So yeah, I’m proud of it all.”
Photography by James McCloud
