Asia Carrera

Asia Carrera — Biography & Career

Asia Carrera, born Jessica Steinhauser, is an American former screen performer whose career began in 1993. Over the next decade she appeared in more than 350 productions and became the first Asian performer to win the 1995 AVN Female Performer of the Year award. She was later inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame in 2001 and the XRCO Hall of Fame in 2007. The same awards body also nominated her for Best Actress – Film in 2000.

Alongside on-camera work, Carrera provided voice performances for Pink Pineapple productions including Shusaku (1999) and Inmu (2001). In October 2001, she attended Big Apple Anime Fest in New York City in connection with those roles and, with Kobe Tai, served as an Opening Night Guest of Honor for the event's Midnight Anime Concourse.

Her credits outside that industry include an uncredited cameo in the 1998 feature The Big Lebowski and work as a guest reviewer for Maximum PC magazine. After retiring in 2003, she appeared in a 2012 documentary about performers after they leave the industry.

Carrera later pursued higher education and legal training. She began studies at Utah Tech University in 2015 and went on to earn a Bachelor of Science in psychology there, followed by a Master of Education from Texas A&M University and a Doctor of Jurisprudence from St. Mary's University School of Law. In April 2026 she passed the State of Texas bar exam, and in July 2026 she reported that she had worked her first day at court in San Antonio.

Source: Career reference — Wikipedia. Career summary adapted from the linked article under CC BY-SA 4.0; wording and selection have been edited.

Photo credit

www.iafd.com — Asia Carrera iafd. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. Display size and framing may be adjusted; the photograph remains available under the linked license.