Asia Carrera
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Asia Carrera | |
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| Birthdate: | August 6, 1973 (age 33) |
| Birth location: | New York City, New York, USA  |
| Birth name: | Jessica Andrea Steinhauser |
| Measurements: | 36C-26-36 |
| Height: | 5 ft 8.5 in (1.74 m) |
| Eye color: | Brown |
| Hair color: | Brunette |
| Natural bust: | No |
| Orientation: | heterosexual |
| Ethnicity: | Japanese and German |
| Alias(es): | Jessica Bennett |
| No. of films: | 370 (approx.) |
| Official Website | |
| Asia Carrera at IMDb | |
| Asia Carrera at IAFD | |
| Asia Carrera at AFDB | |
Asia Carrera (born Jessica Andrea Steinhauser on August 6, 1973 in New York City) is a former American pornographic actress.
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[edit] Early life and education
Asia was born in New York City to a Japanese father and German mother[1]. She was raised in Little Silver, New Jersey, attending Little Silver Public Schools and Red Bank Regional High School.
She studied piano as a child, and had performed at Carnegie Hall twice before the age of 15. When she was 17, she ran away from home because she felt her parents put too much pressure on her to succeed academically.
She won an academic scholarship to Rutgers University and is a member of Mensa[2].
[edit] Adult film career
Carrera worked during the early 1990s as a dancer at several go-go bars in her home state of New Jersey.
After doing at least one photoshoot for an adult magazine, she put together a demo porn tape in 1993. At the end of that year she relocated to California to break into the pornography business and she announced her retirement at the end of 2003. She is sometimes credited as Asia or Jessica Bennett.
Carrera has also been involved in writing, producing, and directing movies, as well as doing all her own make-up and hair-styling, and doing much of the hair and make-up for other actresses in the same movies.
As is common practice among adult film actresses, the name "Asia Carrera" is a pseudonym. According to interviews, she chose the stage name surname from actress Tia Carrere, intentionally misspelling it for legal reasons.
After her contract with Vivid expired in the mid 1990s, Asia had her right labia minora pierced and has henceforth had a variety of 1/2" gold rings affixed there ever since. At this time she also had her first breast enlargement, going from a medium B to at least a full C cup. She has had at least one subsequent breast surgery and is now a D cup or larger.
Asia has performed only a few anal sex scenes, again waiting for her contract with Vivid to expire to do her first scene in the movie "A Is For Asia". Even though anal sex pays better, Asia stated that while she found it enjoyable, it wasn't something she did in her personal life a great deal and had no interest in becoming an "anal queen" in the industry.
[edit] Other interests
Describing herself as "the nerd of porn", Carrera has an active presence on the Internet. She proudly proclaims that she created her own Web site in the late 1990s, including writing the code and editing the pictures.
She is an avid player of Unreal Tournament and she has designed her own game skins, and was featured in the show Players on the G4 games cable channel, where she revealed that her screen name is "Megabitchgoddess." Asia hosted her own Unreal Tournament server that featured custom maps designed by fans that frequented her chatroom that she has hosted on her site since 1997. She is also a Corvette aficionado but traded hers in after starting a family.
[edit] Personal life
In 1995, Carrera married adult film director Bud Lee. They divorced in 2003 after a long separation, but continue to remain good friends. Asia dated Clarke, a former grip from her porn sets, for a few years until his visa expired and he returned to England. Soon after, 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 daughter, Catalina, on March 4, 2005. While she was almost 8 months pregnant with their second baby, Don was killed in a car accident near Las Vegas on June 10, 2006. In an expression of concern about her livelihood and worries of not being able to support their two children on her own, Asia begun to solicit donations on her personal webpage[3][4]. Eventually though Asia got a message from an insurance company that a life insurance she had forgotten about did exist for her husband and after mandatory investigation she was granted it and thus announced that the financial crisis was over.[5]
Their son, who was born on July 31, 2006, was initially to be named Devin; but she decided, after Lemmon's death, to name him Donald Edward Lemmon III.[6] She gave birth to her son at home unassisted. She and Don had planned for the birth to be unassisted, but after his death she was offered free midwifery services; she was unsure whether she wanted to give birth alone without her husband. The birth occurred 11 days prior to the estimated due date, while a midwife was en route. They are currently doing well.
She doesn't have a MySpace page, stating "No, any 'Asia' page at MySpace or other social site is an imposter. I've had my own site and domain since 1996, so I don't need to be anywhere else."
On March 18, 2007 she announced on her Blog that once her merchandise inventory is gone she will shut down her website. "I've got to give my kids their anonymity. I need to back away from being famous so my kids can grow up without being ostracized by their peers for who their mommy was."
[edit] Commentary on the Susan Russell pornography case
In 2006, Carrera was asked for commentary by The Spectrum, a St. George-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 small Mormon-dominated town per the Miller v. California Supreme Court case. 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 explained,
- "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 nor, by implication, the arrest of persons distributing movies she herself may have starred in.
[edit] Filmography
- Carrera has an uncredited appearance in the Coen Brothers' The Big Lebowski
- Carrera was the body double for Jennifer Tilly in the movie Fast Sofa
- Carrera's official filmography containing adult content.
[edit] References
- ^ Asia Carrera: Why I do porn.
- ^ (July 2004) "They're Accomplished, They're Famous, and They're MENSANS". Mensa Bulletin (476): p. 23. ISSN 0025-9543.
- ^ WHAT YOU ARE GETTING TODAY IS A GLIMPSE INSIDE MY WORLD....
- ^ ASIA'S BULLETINS!.
- ^ ASIA'S BULLETINS!.
- ^ Obituaries: LEMMON JR., DONALD.
[edit] External links
- Interview - EXPLICIT CONTENT
Categories: 1973 births | Adult models | American porn stars | Asian American porn stars | Female porn stars | Eurasian actors | German-Americans | Internet personalities | Japanese Americans | Living people | People from New York City | Rutgers University alumni | American atheists | American bloggers
