We all have our favorite female porn stars – but which ones are considered the greatest of all time?
Judging the best pornstar ever is a tricky business as it’s a totally subjective area. Some adult actresses are well known because of the number of films they’ve starred in, others because of their wider exploits and popular marketing. And there are those names that have become synonymous with the adult industry because they were pioneers of their day.
Our list of the 20 top female pornstars contains some truly legendary adult actresses. From the leading ladies of porn’s Golden Era — stars like Marilyn Chambers and Traci Lords — to instantly recognisable porn icons like Jenna Jameson and Riley Reid (who is arguably the most popular porn star in the world today). There’s a reason why these ladies have risen to the very top of the adult world: their movies are just that fucking hot.
We dare you – between faps – to pause and admire just what it takes to become one of the best pornstars that ever lived. Because that’s what these ladies have achieved.
If you want to get your hands (or eyes, or pants) on the best scenes that these ladies ever committed to tape, we’d highly recommend taking out a subscription over on Adult Empire. It has a library of over 1500+ scenes featuring the hottest pornstars on our list.
Let’s get to it!
- Best Pornstars Ever: Top 20 Hottest QUEENS of Porn
- 1. Jenna Haze
- 2. Asia Carrera
- 3. Ilona Staller
- 4. Marilyn Chambers
- 5. Jenna Jameson
- 6. Ebony Ayes
- 7. Riley Reid
- 8. Madison Ivy
- 9. Bobbi Starr
- 10. Claudine Beccarie
- 11. Traci Lords
- 12. Belladonna
- 13. Tera Patrick
- 14. Sasha Grey
- 15. Tori Black
- 16. Lacey Duvalle
- 17. Linda Lovelace
- 18. Alexis Texas
- 19. Lisa Ann
- 20. Bree Olson
- Wildcard: Buck Angel
Best Pornstars Ever: Top 20 Hottest QUEENS of Porn
We apologise in advance if your favorite porn star has been left off what is a long list of exceptionally talented female adult movie stars.
We’re judging the best female pornstars by several metrics:
- Dedication to services
- Overall adult industry legacy
- Longevity
- Search traffic popularity
- Number of awards won
- Our subjective take on the XXX-appeal of their movies
- Hotness
Oh and BTW: You might also be interested in our list of the most famous male porn stars. We have multiple porn star compilations for you to enjoy!
For obvious reasons, we could only consider mainstream porn stars who have been involved in professional productions. We couldn’t feature the many amateur stars performing live on cam sites like Chaturbate, or more recently OnlyFans. Even though some of their view counts are just as impressive!
We’ll save the top amateur porn stars list for another post…
So, without further ado, we give you our list of the best pornstars of all time.
1. Jenna Haze
The 2009 AVN Performer of the Year and 2003 AVN Best New Starlet, Jenna Haze retired from the adult business as a performer in 2012 but would continue to produce and direct if she could.
She has won other awards for her film work including Best Oral Sex Scene and Best Group Sex Scene in 2007. Including compilations, Haze has starred in 602 adult films and has directed a further 15 – she is widely considered one of the hottest pornstars ever.
In 2009, she launched her own production company (Jenneration X Studios). At 5’ 3”, she cuts a petite figure on the screen and has covered pretty much all angles in the adult film genre. She exclusively filmed girl-on-girl action whilst she was in a relationship with a cameraman during the period 2002 and 2005.
…God damn, lucky cameraman.
This did her no small favor and earned her a great reputation for hot lesbian porn. Unsurprisingly her return to cock in 2006 with Jenna Haze Darkside was extremely well received.
Haze consistently tops lists of porns prettiest, hottest and most talented female stars and you only have to watch her in action to see why she is many peoples all-time favorite female porn star.
2. Asia Carrera
Born to a Japanese father and German mother, Asia Carrera (born Jessica Steinhauser) starred in over 400 adult movies during her decade in the industry.
Active between 1993 and 2003, Carrera was the first Asian performer to win the coveted title ‘Female Performer of the Year’ at the 1995 AVN Awards. A member of Mensa, Carrera has played classical piano at the Carnegie Hall and attained nerd status for her school grades at state schools and university. Not only is she one of the best pornstars of her generation, but she’s one of the smartest too. 😉
Her film repertoire is expansive and proves that she is a multi-talented actress. There is virtually nothing that you can’t find Carrera doing from DP with toys, anal, hot slut orgies and all-girl action. If you’re looking for the best anal sex scene, Asia has had some of the sexiest we’ve ever seen. Some of the movies she wrote herself including ‘Betrayal’, considered to be one of her best performances.
Though Carrera is retired, she still runs her personal website for her fans and is a big proponent of porn taking part in a documentary in 2012 entitled ‘After Porn Ends’; a look at retired life for the adult industry’s big names.
With her trademark Asian beauty, 36C-26-36 figure and obvious enjoyment of her trade, Carrera is a deserved entrant on this list.
3. Ilona Staller
Also known as Cicciolina, this Hungarian-Italian porn star has only made 15 adult films but has had a wide-reaching impact on the industry.
She was the first woman to show her breasts on Italian TV in 1978 and appeared in several films during the 1970s. Although married to the pornographer Riccardo Schicchi since the early 70s, her first porn movie wasn’t until 1983 with the release of Telefono Rosso (The Red Telephone).
As her popularity increased with further successful releases (including the infamous movie with John Holmes, ‘The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empress’) she appeared nude in several Playboy shoots. She declared in 2015 that she would film one final “artistic pornographic movie” as a last gift for her army of fans.
Staller cuts an impressive figure with her platinum blonde hair, big ass, long legs and huge tits but it is, perhaps, her natural zeal and energy during her performances which have made her a firm favorite and one of the best pornstars of all time.
4. Marilyn Chambers
One of the seventies-era stalwarts of the porn industry, Chambers was active for 35 years from 1972 to 2007. Her later feature films had much more of a mainstream appeal and she is better known for being one of the adult film industry’s most successful crossover actresses, as well as one of its hottest pornstars in the golden era of porn.
She was one of the new ‘porno chic’ era of adult movie stars who emerged in more mass-market films during the 1970s. Her debut porn film, ‘Behind the Green Door’, filmed in 1972 was viewed at the time as ground breaking and included previously taboo subjects like orgies and interracial sex. It’s well worth a watch on one of the retro porn sites.
The scene where Chambers has sex with African American boxer, Johnny Keyes, is widely acknowledged as the first hardcore porn film showing a white woman having sex with a black man.
In a 2004 interview with Bruce Kirkland, Chambers was quoted as saying:
“…life is cruel when you get to be over 40 and nobody wants you, nobody wants to see you without your clothes on. Which is fine with me, because I don’t want to take them off anymore.”
Which was a great shame for her army of fans who followed her popular cult classic titles such as Beyond de Sade, Never a Tender Moment and Resurrection of Eve. A true icon of adult entertainment.
5. Jenna Jameson
Also known as the ‘Queen of Porn’, Jameson has consistently been named as the world’s most famous porn actress. She has starred in 187 adult film titles and has directed four. Jenna’s sex scenes are the stuff of legend.
Her pioneering porn career started in 1994 and she was active up until her retirement in 2008. Jameson headed the new wave of online pornography founding ClubJenna in 2000 and producing content for web distribution as well as traditional video and DVD.
Her first title, ‘Briana Loves Jenna’ was named in 2003 as the best selling and most rented film for 2002.
She has won over 35 adult industry awards in her career and continues to play an influential role in our sex lives with her vagina being immortalised in a Fleshlight sex toy by the same name (2014).
6. Ebony Ayes
Often credited as porn’s first female black pornstar, Ebony Ayes hit the mainstream market at the height of the transition of porn from backstreet movie theaters to VHS.
Whilst there had been black women in porn before Ayes, Desiree West being a great example, they had mainly played co-starring and supporting roles. Ayes, however, was the star of all her titles.
She was active from 1985 to 1996 and was best known for her work in Black n Blew, Lust of Blackula and Horny Heatwaves. Not just one of the hottest pornstars – she was one of the most influential, too.
7. Riley Reid
Definitely a candidate for the hottest pornstar ever!
The star of over 500 adult films, Riley Reid started her career in the porn industry in 2011 and is still active today.
LA Weekly named her one of ten performers who could become the next Jenna Jameson in their 2013 list and Reid has also been ranked in the CNBC Dirty Dozen list of Porn’s Most Popular Stars for 2014, 2015 and 2016. She has won 18 XBiz and AVN awards and been nominated 41 times.
Her films include a great variety including anal (check that round ass ;)), interracial, lesbian and DP. If you’re looking for hardcore porn scenes with a true dream girl, Riley Reid has to be near the top of your list.
Still in her 20s, she has no plans for retirement which is great news for us as conceivably she could go on to produce another 500 films.
8. Madison Ivy
As the first female contract-star with Brazzers Madison Ivy started her porn career in 2008 with some of the industry’s big names (Hustler, Bang Bros, Naughty America and Elegant Angel).
She has starred in 221 films and has been nominated for ten industry awards, winning one in 2014 for her work on ‘Hotel No Tell’ in a couples scene filmed with Mick Blue.
German born, Ivy is a popular porn actress who also writes and directs some of her films. At 4’ 11”, she is a diminutive actress who cuts a commanding figure with her full D cup chest. She lives with her girlfriend and fellow porn star, Heather Starlet.
9. Bobbi Starr
Having one of the most productive porn careers in the industry, Starr has filmed almost 600 titles and has a reputation for having a strong work ethic.
Starting out with BDSM titles, she has gone on to direct several of her own films and was listed in 2011 and 2013 as one of the top dozen women in porn. She is currently taking a break from porn after becoming pregnant in 2013 and now focusing on her family.
As a performer, Starr has earned herself 9 AVN and XRCO Awards as well as two AVN Awards as a director. Her directorial debut, ‘Bobbi’s World’ was shot in female POV. She has covered most of the popular tags for her films including anal, lesbian, interracial, BDSM and deepthroat.
10. Claudine Beccarie
What list of the best female porn stars would be complete without the legend of the French screen, Claudine Beccarie. Active from 1972 to 1982, Beccarie was the first French porn star after launching her own career in a documentary about herself.
This piece of self-promotion entitled ‘Exhibition’ featured some staged hardcore scenes and gained her much notoriety in France as well as internationally. She starred in almost 100 movies with several 8mm films being distributed early in the 1970s in the Netherlands.
She is best known for her work on ‘Inhibitions’, ‘Les Joyeuses’ and ‘Prostitution Clandestine’. As one of the original porn stars in the seventies, Beccarie was much loved for her obvious enjoyment of her movies and the sophistication she brought to her roles in some legendary sex scenes.
11. Traci Lords
The center of a scandal in the mid-1980s when it was revealed that she was an underage actress who had faked her ID to get a job in porn, the name Traci Lords is synonymous with porn.
In a case that reportedly cost the industry millions of dollars, all but one of her hardcore movies were reportedly filmed before she was of legal age.
The only film that was legally filmed (two days after her 18th birthday) and allowed to remain on sale was ‘Traci, I Love You’. It was her last movie to be made as a porn actress and, as soon as she was old enough to legally work in the business, she quit in 1986.
She has gone on to become a moderately successful crossover actress working on films such as ‘Serial Mom’, ‘Cry Baby’ and ‘Zack and Miri Make a Porno’.
12. Belladonna
Belladonna has been nominated for 42 AVN awards (and won 10) as well as various XRCO, FAME, Ninfa, XBIZ, AFWG and Nightmoves Awards. She has starred in and directed over 350 movies and is one of the porn industry’s favorite stars.
Born Michelle Sinclair in 1981, Belladonna has retired from making porn movies but her back catalogue of films are still some of the most watched clips online.
Her films cover a myriad of different interests including gangbang, taking multiple cocks, anal, BDSM and rough hardcore sex. She has an exceptionally loyal fan base and was voted one of the porn industry’s most popular stars in 2011.
Belladonna was inducted into the XRCO Hall of Fame in 2013.
13. Tera Patrick
Active since 1999 and still distributing her adult content, Tera Patrick has made over 130 porn movies. Inducted into the AVN, XRCO and NightMoves Halls of Fame, Patrick has retired from shooting any more movies.
She started her career with the Ford model agency, cashing in on her trademark exotic looks and stunning physical attributes (Patrick is 5’ 10” with 36DD cup breasts) before landing roles in some niche B&D movies when she was 22.
Named as one of FHM’s most sexy women she was the first porn star to appear on the magazines cover in July 2006. A lusty performer with a curvy and feminine body, Patrick will long be admired in her many titles.
14. Sasha Grey
The youngest person to win an AVN Performer of the Year, aged just 20, Sasha Grey has made 328 adult films including two as a director.
She has won other AVN awards for group sex scenes and best three-way sex scenes making her a good porn star to know in a crowd. Grey was voted the #1 hottest porn star by Genesis magazine in 2009.
She is an active pro-campaigner for the porn industry and regularly defends her choice to have entered the adult film industry at an early age (she was 18 when she made her first movie).
A successful crossover artist with mainstream movies, books, modelling and music to add to her resume, Grey is a multitalented lady. She has a very loyal fan base but has sadly retired from making any more films.
15. Tori Black
Named the Most Attractive Woman in Porn, 2010 by lad’s mag Loaded, Black has made over 400 adult films and directed three.
She has received 64 nominations for adult industry awards with AVN, XBiz and others, winning 18; including Female Performer of the Year five times.
An undergraduate in Journalism, Black’s website features regular live shows from friends in her network as she continues to earn from her fresh-faced appeal. At just 28 years old Black hasn’t made any new films for a while but has not yet officially retired from the industry.
16. Lacey Duvalle
One of the brightest and biggest stars in the industry, Duvalle entered the adult film industry in 2000 when she was 18., filming ‘Dirty Debutantes’.
An instant natural with nice tits on a petite frame, she became a well known figure of the porn industry very quickly. Shooting both lesbian and straight scenes, Duvalle is best known for her work in ‘Black Cheerleaders’.
17. Linda Lovelace
Star of ‘Deep Throat’, Linda Lovelace is perhaps the best known porn star of all time and for good reason.
Not only was her appearance in ‘Deep Throat’ what helped to make it a knockout mainstream success (playing in respectable cinemas internationally) but she also starred in some 8mm fetish scenes that have also become legendary viewing across some rather unusual porn categories. In one, she is seen having sex with a dog, ‘Dogarama’ and in another she is the centre of water sports play, ‘Piss Orgy’.
Lovelace was married to the film producer, Chuck Traynor from 1971 to 1974 who was also married to one of our other greatest female porn stars ever, Marilyn Chambers. The man was onto something.
She has been the subject of two biographical films, ‘Lovelace’ and ‘Inferno: A Linda Lovelace Story’.
Though her screen hours in porn movies only adds up to a little over five hours Lovelace makes the list for her legacy and infamy.
18. Alexis Texas
One of the most famous and popular porn stars is Alexis Texas – a prolific and enthusiastic performer. She has made over 600 adult movies and has directed five.
Her appeal might be attributed to her mixed descent with some Puerto-Rican and some Norwegian, Alexis was born in Panama but raised in Castroville, Texas (hence her stagename).
She has won 14 adult industry awards including six choice titles for Hottest Ass, Best Ass and Most Epic Ass.
All in all, her ass is going to need its own trophy cabinet. It might just be the greatest ever. (Hmm, not so sure.)
Her films cover a wide remit of gangbang, anal, lesbian and group sex making her catalogue of titles suitable for all tastes. She started out in 2006 and continues to play a role in the industry although she has performed in several crossover mainstream titles.
19. Lisa Ann
Lisa Ann has starred in over 540 films famously parodying Sarah Palin in the film ‘Who’s Nailin’ Palin?’.
She has been inducted into the AVN, Urban X and XRCO Halls of Fame and has won over 18 industry awards, notably plenty of Fan’s Choice awards. Lisa Ann retired from making films in December 2014 but has continued appearing in webcam shows.
Her website is a members only subscription site that continues to earn her money and is a brilliant catalogue of some of her finest work. She worked for 20 years from 1994-2014 and earned a reputation amongst her legion of fans as a ballsy performer who put in maximum effort to get the best results.
She has directed 54 titles in addition to her own appearances and has since launched her own venture, ‘Porn Star Boot Camp’ to mentor upcoming starlets to the industry.
20. Bree Olson
Starring in almost 500 adult films between the period 2006 to 2011, Olson has been critical of the stigmatization that adult industry performers receive in the ‘real word’.
Famously quoted as saying “…porn didn’t hurt me. The way society treats me for having done it does.“
Olson regularly tops the top lists of women in porn during her peak. A former Penthouse Pet of the Month, Olson was romantically linked with Charlie Sheen and won the fan’s choice NightMoves Award for Best Female Performer in 2009.
Olson’s website still has a good archive of her porn films which showcases her girl-next-door appeal to great extent. We love those alluring facial expressions, her great ass, and her show stopping star power on-screen.
Wildcard: Buck Angel
Our wildcard bonus is FTM porn superstar, Buck Angel.
A transgendered man with a pussy, Buck Angel was born female but identifies as a transgendered man; sort of a reverse shemale.
He has had top surgery to remove his boobs but still has a pussy which he uses to good effect in his wide variety of porn films. Attracting a mix of gay and straight viewers, Buck Angel has a dedicated following of fans.
Though he has kind of retired from starring in adult films, you can still find his movies online through the usual tube channels like PornHub.
Have we left your favorite female porn star off the list?
Let us know in your comments which women should have made the list and which ones you don’t think should be on here.