Early life

Asia Carrera was born Jessica Steinhauser in New York City to a Japanese father and German mother, the eldest of four siblings. She was raised on Lippincott Road in Little Silver, New Jersey, attending the Little Silver School District and Red Bank Regional High School. She studied piano as a child and performed at Carnegie Hall twice before the age of 15. At the age of 16, she taught English at Tsuruga College in Tsuruga, Fukui, Japan.

She attended Rutgers University, where she majored in Japanese and business, but did not graduate. Carrera is a member of Mensa, with an IQ of 156.

Career

Adult film career

Carrera's adult film career ran from 1993 to 2003 and included over 400 films and video features. According to interviews, she chose her stage name surname from actress Tia Carrere, changing the spelling for legal reasons.

Carrera was the first Asian performer ever to win the award AVN Female Performer of the Year Award.

Carrera lent her voice to several erotic hentai OVAs for publisher Pink Pineapple, such as Inmu (2001) and Shusaku (1999). In October 2001, Carrera attended the Big Apple Anime Fest in New York City for her voice roles and along with Kobe Tai was an Opening Night Guest of Honor at the fest's Midnight Anime Concourse.

Carrera was also in the 2010 documentary After Porn Ends, which is about life after being a porn actor.

Other work

In 1998, she appeared in an uncredited cameo role in the film The Big Lebowski in the faux pornographic movie Logjammin' within the film.

Carrera was a guest reviewer for Maximum PC magazine.

Personal life

Carrera is an atheist. In November 2014, she wore a colander on her head for her Utah driver's license photograph. State law normally prohibits the wearing of hats in driver license photos, but there is an exception for religious headwear, and Carerra's colander was worn in honor of the religion of the Flying Spaghetti Monster; she is one of about a dozen "Pastafarian" Utahns who have worn a colander in their official state ID photos.

In September 1995, Carrera married adult film director Bud Lee. They divorced in 2003, but remain good friends. Carrera dated a former grip from her porn sets for a few years until his visa expired and he returned to England. She married nutritionist and author Don Lemmon on December 19, 2003. The couple moved to St. George, Utah, where Carrera gave birth to her first child, daughter Catalina, on March 4, 2005. Lemmon was killed in a car accident near Las Vegas on June 10, 2006. At the time, Carrera was almost eight months pregnant with their second child, son Devin. Concerned about her livelihood and worries of not being able to support her two children on her own, Carrera began to solicit donations on her personal web site. Eventually, Carrera got a message from an insurance company that a life insurance policy she had forgotten about did exist for her husband, and she was granted it after mandatory investigation.

On May 13, 2007, she announced on her website that she had filed a request to legally change her son's name from Donald Edward Lemmon III to Devin D'Artagnan Lemmon, in honor of Devin DeVasquez, the woman who had introduced Carrera to Lemmon. "Devin D'Artagnan Lemmon" had been what Carrera and Lemmon had originally planned to name their son, but after Lemmon's death, Carrera named the boy after his father, a decision she regretted soon after. She explained that "He's not Don, he never will be Don, and it made me want to start crying every time a random stranger would say, 'Oh he's so cute, what's his name?'" The state made an error in changing the boy's name, however, and he is legally named "Devin D'Artagnan Lemmon III."

On April 14, 2010, Carrera confessed on her blog that she became an alcoholic after Lemmon's death, that she had joined Alcoholics Anonymous, and was in her third week of sobriety. She emphasized that she still did not believe in God, and that it is "actually not mandatory for joining AA." Carrera later gave birth to a boy she named Niko. On September 21, 2012, she wrote on her Facebook page that she gave him up for adoption. On March 5, 2015, Carrera was charged with "driving under the influence with a child," since her daughter was in the car with her, lodged at the Purgatory Correctional Facility and released on bail.

She identified investor Warren Buffett as her hero on her website, which Buffett was pleased to learn.

Commentary on the Susan Russell pornography case

In 2006, Carrera was asked for commentary by The Spectrum, a St. George, Utah-area newspaper, on the local case of Susan Russell, who was charged with 15 counts of third-degree felony distribution of pornographic material. Russell allegedly sold pornographic materials and sex toys from a back room in her Earrings and More store, potentially violating the "community standards" of the Mormon-dominated town per the Supreme Court case Miller v. California. Carrera opined:

"I deliberately moved to St. George with my husband so we could raise our kids in a conservative atmosphere, in a low-crime, family-friendly state. I do appreciate that the laws are there, and will make it harder for my kids to get into trouble when they get older."

However, she also said,

"Do I have a problem with porn being sold here? No, not per se. I have no problem with porn at all. Trust me, they don't exploit women, and watching porn has never been scientifically shown to lead to any increase in crime rates, be it rape, pedophilia, or any other sexual crimes."

Nevertheless, she reiterated that the community's conservatism was the reason she moved there, and that she had no plans to challenge it.

Awards and nominations

• 1995 AVN Female Performer of the Year
• 2000 AVN Best Couples Sex Scene - Film (Search for the Snow Leopard)
• 2000 AVN Award nominee - Best Actress - Film
• 2001 AVN Hall of Fame inductee
• 2007 XRCO Hall of Fame inductee - XRCO Members' Choice

[ Source: Wikipedia ]