Aria Lee

My friend Ches recommended I shoot with Aria Lee. We met and had great chemistry; unfortunately, we never filmed again.

Aria Lee is an American adult film actress and model born in June 2000 in Phoenix, Arizona. She began performing in 2018, at 18, and became one of the most recognisable petite newcomers of her generation.

Her name and looks have often led fans and websites to describe her as Asian. Aria has publicly corrected this: according to her own statements, quoted by Babepedia, her father is of Native American and African descent and her mother is of Italian descent.

Early in her career she shot with MetArt and other glamour studios before moving to hardcore features and all-girl productions with the major Los Angeles companies. She worked often in girl/girl scenes and appeared opposite performers such as Kat Dior.

Aria's work earned her a run of AVN Award nominations. She was nominated for Best New Starlet, for Best Virtual Reality Sex Scene, and in the fan-voted Hottest Newcomer and Most Epic Ass categories. She also received Best All-Girl Group Sex Scene nominations for Popular and Torn, plus a Spank Bank Awards nomination. Her nominations span 2020 to 2023.

Babepedia lists her years active as 2018–2023, while IAFD still records credits into later years. She has since focused largely on her own platforms and social media.

Start in the industry. Lee told Fleshbot in 2018 that she had been "a quiet girl" in high school, with a group of friends but not one of the popular crowd. In the summer of 2018 an agent from Motley Models discovered her on Instagram, and she moved from Arizona to Los Angeles. "I have always watched porn," she told Hustler, "so I knew this was something I definitely wanted to pursue." Her first scenes were for the Net Video Girls network. Her girl/girl debut, with Kat Dior in Girlfriends Films' Please Make Me Lesbian 18, was the kind of work she said she felt most comfortable in. Among her favourite co-stars she named Alex De La Flor and Rob Piper, and she called Eddie Jaye a role model for staying focused "without getting caught up in the trash" of the business. She went on to shoot for Cherry Pimps, Jules Jordan, Team Skeet, Mofos, Reality Kings, New Sensations, Blacked Raw and Dark X. Some sources give Vientiane, Laos, rather than Phoenix as her birthplace.

Lawsuit. In June 2020 Lee publicly accused the director Craven Moorehead of sexually assaulting her twice on sets in late 2019. His directing contract was then terminated. Moorehead denied the claims and sued her for defamation in Los Angeles County Superior Court, seeking at least $10 million. IBTimes reported that Lee chose to represent herself, arguing that she was telling the truth. "I want the entire porn industry to know what he did to me," she told AVN. In interviews she has said she would one day like to become a marine biologist or a lawyer.