Early life

Drake spent much of her early life growing up around the state of Texas in different cities including San Antonio and El Paso.

Career

While majoring in psychology at a college in El Paso, Drake took a job as a house dancer at a local strip club. Through an agency, she later applied to be feature dancer at another club nearby, and here she met adult film director Michael Raven, who was photographing a contest. Raven and his wife Sydnee Steele gradually introduced her to the porn industry. Drake began by posing for magazines and appearing on Playboy TV, and was later taken to a film set, where she was the "condom and lube girl" for a scene starring Jill Kelly and Mark Davis.

In 1999, she made the decision to become an adult film actress and shot her first movie, which was directed by Raven. She spent two years as a contract performer for the studio Sin City until May 31, 2002 when her contract expired. She gained her first AVN Award in 2001, winning "Best Tease Performance" for her role in VCA Pictures' Shayla's Web. In 2003, she signed an exclusive contract with Wicked Pictures, after turning down offers from other companies.

In 2004, during a HIV outbreak in the industry, she stated that she had only performed with men who wore condoms, although gave the opinion that "working without condoms in the industry is less dangerous than going home with someone who you just met randomly in a bar."

Her performance in Fluff and Fold, a romantic comedy set around a laundromat, earned her the 2005 AVN Award for Best Actress, Video and the 2005 XRCO Award for Single Performance, Actress. Along with comedian Jim Norton, Drake was chosen to co-host the 2007 AVN Awards, and stated "this is probably the greatest thing that ever happened to me." At the awards, she won Best Actress, Film for her role in Manhunters, for which Drake trained as a bounty hunter during pre-production. Her directorial debut came in the 2008 film What Girls Like, having gained previous experience working as Brad Armstrong’s assistant director on titles such as 2007's Coming Home.

She began writing screenplays during her tenure with Sin City, and has since penned films including Dating 101, Love Always and Just Between Us. In January 2009, she won her third Best Actress AVN Award, this time for her performance in Fallen, which she has described as "the best movie I have ever been in." In the film, she plays an angel trapped on Earth after the death of a woman she was sent to protect. Around the time of the awards, she suffered a stress fracture to her left foot.

With porn actress Kayden Kross, Drake co-hosted the 2009 XRCO Awards, at which her role in Fallen won the award for "Single Performance, Actress." She and Sunny Leone co-hosted the F.A.M.E. Awards in July 2010. Drake was inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame in 2010 and the XRCO Hall of Fame in 2011. Jessica Drake's Guide to Wicked Sex: Anal Edition (Wicked Pictures) was named "Specialty Release of the Year" at the 2012 XBIZ Awards.

Appearances

Her name is often spelled "jessica drake" (all lower case). Drake's story as to how this came about was she was signing autographs at a convention about three months after starting in the adult business using "Jessica Drake" (proper case) but she was unhappy with how it looked. After the convention, she experimented with various ways of signing and settled on the lower case version of her name.

Drake has appeared in several television shows. She appeared in one episode of the short-lived TV series The Money $hot, and the pilot episode of Skin. She made an appearance, along with her former husband Evan Stone, in the HBO special Pornucopia: Going Down in the Valley. The pair appeared in an episode titled Love and/or Sex which pertained to couples working in the adult entertainment business. In November 2007, Drake was among several porn actors to be guests on The Tyra Banks Show episode, "A Day in the Life of a Porn Star." In 2008, Drake, Kaylani Lei, and Mikayla Mendez shot a scene for the mainstream comedy movie, Barry Munday, in which they played themselves as judges in an air-guitar contest. Drake appears in the music video for the 2010 single "Telephone" by Lady Gaga featuring Beyoncé.

In 2014, Drake was on CNBC's list of "The Dirty Dozen: Porn's Most Popular Stars". Later in the year a documentary series began airing on The Movie Network and Movie Central titled Love, Jessica. The first season of the series is ten 30-minute episodes. The show is produced by executive producer Richard Arnold, producer Lynnette Lanning, and director Kai Soremekun, the creators of The Right Hand at EWL Media.

Drake, along with her husband actor Brad Armstrong, were featured in a 2014 story in Cosmopolitan magazine about costume design in adult films. The magazine website's style editor, Charles Manning, interviewed the couple regarding their approach to costume design for productions where the actors are or end up nude for significant amounts of the scenes.

Charity

Drake is affiliated with an organization that focuses on building homes and providing clean water to people in poverty-stricken and remote areas. She has performed charity work in Cambodia, Kenya and Tanzania. In 2012, Drake formed a 501(c)(3) non-profit to assist in domestic efforts. This is separate from her role in the adult industry and the "jessica drake" brand, since she does not want anyone to believe that she volunteers her time as part of a public relations campaign. Her charity work is done anonymously.

Sex educator

Noting a demand for modern sex education, Jessica Drake and Wicked Pictures launched Jessica Drake’s Guide to Wicked Sex, an informative series of erotic educational films. The first DVD in the line, Jessica Drake’s Guide to Wicked Sex: Fellatio, was honored with the 2012 award for Best Educational Release by AVN Media. The series has been profiled on women’s lifestyle sites like XOJane.com. In 2014 Drake added a video to the series that addressed a segment that she said was under represented, plus size. In collaboration with BBW performer Kelly Shibari, they released Jessica Drake’s Guide to Wicked Sex: Plus Size.

"Guide to Wicked Sex" was also a weekly segment on Jessica's popular Playboy Radio show, "IN BED with jessica drake."

Jessica teaches sex education seminars and workshops around the world, including addressing a class of licensed therapists at UCLA on May 3, 2012 and speaking on a panel at CatalystCon West sexuality conference.

In February 2014, Drake spoke on a panel with fellow actress Tasha Reign during the University of Chicago's Sex Week where they were featured on a panel entitled Jessica Drake: From Porn to Sex Ed.

Again in February, Drake along with fellow actress Tasha Reign spoke on a panel titled Porn, Prostitution, and Censorship: The Politics of Empowerment at Moore Hall at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). The annual panel is sponsored by the Social Awareness Network for Activism through Art (SANAA) in honor of Eve Ensler’s V-Day Organization. Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues is an annual presentation on women’s issues. Also on the panel were Ph.D. candidate in Cinema and Media Studies at UCLA and lecturer at Otis College of Art and Design Jennifer Moorman and UCLA Distinguished Lecturer Dr. Christopher Mott who leads a seminar titled "Pornography and the Politics of Sexual Representation." Panel coordinator Alec Moore said, "We are extremely thrilled to have Tasha Reign and Jessica Drake on board for our panel." "As a sex industry insider, and a Bruin, Tasha can provide us a unique perspective from her own epistemological standpoint, lending us her valuable insight into the politics of sexual representation." Reign is an alumna of UCLA.

Advocacy

In April 2014, Drake was part of discussion panel at the USC School of Cinematic Arts titled "The Piracy of Sex." The event featured Drake and copyright enforcement activist Nate Glass and was hosted by David Lerner, Ph.D.

Personal life

In 2002, Drake married fellow porn actor Evan Stone, but they later divorced in 2004. As of 2009, she was living with Wicked director and performer Brad Armstrong, her partner for six years. She has stated that she wishes to keep her personal relationships out of the spotlight.

Drake is a pescatarian and stated in a 2014 interview that she only eats fish and had not eaten meat in over three years. She identifies as bisexual. She has six tattoos. Her brother and father were more supportive of her career choice than her mother.

Awards

• 2001 AVN Award - Best Tease Performance - Shayla's Web
• 2002 NightMoves Award - Best Actress (Editor's Choice)
• 2005 AVN Award - Best Oral Sex Scene, Film - The Collector
• 2005 AVN Award - Best Actress, Video - Fluff and Fold
• 2005 XRCO Award - Single Performance, Actress - Fluff and Fold
• 2006 Eroticline Award - Best Actress, USA
• 2007 AVN Award - Best Actress, Film - Manhunters
• 2007 AVN Award - Best All-Girl Scene, Film - FUCK
• 2008 Eroticline Award - Award for Outstanding Achievements
• 2009 AVN Award - Best Actress - Fallen
• 2009 AVN Award - Best Double Penetration Sex Scene - Fallen
• 2009 XRCO Award - Single Performance, Actress - Fallen
• 2009 NightMoves Award - Best Female Performer (Editor's Choice)
• 2009 NightMoves Hall of Fame
• 2010 NightMoves Triple Play Award (Dancing/Performing/Directing)
• 2010 AVN Award - Best Group Sex Scene - 2040
• 2010 AVN Hall of Fame
• 2011 XRCO Hall of Fame
• 2013 Sex Award - Porn’s Perfect Girl/Girl Screen Couple
• 2014 AVN Award - Best Safe Sex Scene - Sexpionage: The Drake Chronicles
• 2015 XBIZ Award - Best Actress - Parody Release - Snow White XXX: An Axel Braun Parody

[ Source: Wikipedia ]