Taryn Thomas (born May 27, 1983) is an American

pornographic actress A pornographic film actor or actress, pornographic performer, adult entertainer, or porn star is a person who performs sex acts on video that is usually characterized as a pornographic film. Such videos tend to be made in a number of distinc ...

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

, men's club feature dancer, and

model A model is an informative representation of an object, person, or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin , . Models can be divided in ...

Career

Upon turning 18 years old, Thomas began working for Lightspeed Media Corporation doing internet photo shoots and

softcore pornography Softcore pornography or softcore porn is commercial still photography, film, imagery, or even audio that has a pornographic or erotic component but is less sexually graphic or intrusive than hardcore pornography, defined by a lack of sexual p ...

(a total of about twenty appearances). In late 2004, Thomas traveled to

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...

with the intention of pursuing a career in

hardcore pornography Hardcore pornography or hardcore porn is pornography that features detailed depictions of sexual organs or sexual acts such as sexual intercourse, vaginal, anal sex, anal, oral sex, oral, or Non-penetrative sex#Manual sex, manual intercourse; e ...

. ''12 on 1 #2'' by Lethal Hardcore was the first

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

that Thomas shot in California, and it featured her performing with

Penny Flame Jennifer "Jennie" Ketcham is an American writer, reality television personality, blogger, and artist. Before 2009, she worked as a pornographic film actress and director under the name Penny Flame. She later appeared on a number of television t ...

, Sandra Romain and Melissa Lauren. Thomas was nominated for several

AVN Award The AVN Awards are List of movie awards, film awards sponsored and presented by the American trade magazine ''AVN (magazine), AVN'' (''Adult Video News'') annually to honor achievements in the global Sex industry, adult entertainment industry. ...

s in 2006, including Best New Starlet. She has also appeared on the ''

Howard Stern Show ''The Howard Stern Show'' is an American radio show hosted by Howard Stern that gained wide recognition when it was radio syndication, nationally syndicated on terrestrial radio from WINS-FM, WXRK in New York City, between 1986 and 2005. The sho ...

'' multiple times and participated in the "Pornstar Beauty Pageant", competing against

Taylor Wane Taylor Wane is a British actress, model, and former pornographic film performer. She was inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame in 2005 and the XRCO Hall of Fame in 2014 as well as Legends Hall of Fame. Early life Wane was born in Gateshead, in Ty ...

and Carmen Luvana. She played the parody role of

Snooki Nicole Elizabeth LaValle (née Polizzi; born November 23, 1987), best known by her nickname Snooki ( ), is an American reality television personality. She is best known for being a cast member of the MTV reality show ''Jersey Shore (TV series ...

in ''

Jersey Shore The Jersey Shore, commonly called the Shore by locals, is the coast, coastal region of the U.S. state of New Jersey. The term encompasses about of shore, oceanfront bordering the Atlantic Ocean, from Perth Amboy, New Jersey, Perth Amboy in the n ...

XXX'' in 2010.

Injury and temporary retirement

After an injury performing, Thomas gained weight and took her departure from the

adult film Pornography (colloquially called porn or porno) is sexually suggestive material, such as a picture, video, text, or audio, intended for sexual arousal. Made for consumption by adults, pornographic depictions have evolved from cave paintings ...

industry. During this period, Thomas stated that she became addicted to drugs. She sought help for her addiction, and, once she was

clean and sober ''Clean and Sober'' is a 1988 American drama film directed by Glenn Gordon Caron and starring Michael Keaton as a real estate agent struggling with a substance abuse problem. This film was Keaton's first dramatic departure from comedies. The sup ...

, Thomas announced her return to the adult film industry in May 2007. Since then, she has starred in several different films and has been documenting her career on her blog. She has been retired from performing since 2012.

Appearances

Thomas has appeared in a '' Penthouse'' magazine pictorial and several online galleries. She has also appeared in several

men's magazines This is a list of men's magazines from around the world. These are Magazine, magazines (periodical print publications) that have been published primarily for a readership of Man, men. The list has been split into subcategories according to the t ...

, such as ''

Maxim Maxim or Maksim may refer to: Entertainment *Maxim (magazine), ''Maxim'' (magazine), an international men's magazine ** Maxim (Australia), ''Maxim'' (Australia), the Australian edition ** Maxim (India), ''Maxim'' (India), the Indian edition *Maxim ...

'', ''

FHM ''FHM'' (For Him Magazine) was a printed British multinational men's lifestyle magazine that was published in several countries. It contained features such as the ''FHM'' 100 Sexiest Women in the World. The final printed issue of British ''F ...

'', and others, and she had her debut as a feature dancer at a gentlemen's club in Phoenix in 2005.

Other ventures

In October 2009, Thomas released ''Vogue Nasty'', her first video under her production company, Taryn It Up Entertainment.

Advocacy

In a 2012 interview with a

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

affiliate in Phoenix while attending a convention, Thomas stated her concerns about the effects of

Measure B Measure B, also known as the ''County of Los Angeles Safer Sex In the Adult Film Industry Act,'' is the law that requires the use of condoms in all vaginal and anal sex scenes in pornography productions filmed in Los Angeles County, California. T ...

, which mandated the use of

condom A condom is a sheath-shaped Barrier contraception, barrier device used during sexual intercourse to reduce the probability of pregnancy or a Sexually transmitted disease, sexually transmitted infection (STI). There are both external condo ...

s in all pornographic productions in

Los Angeles county Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles and sometimes abbreviated as LA County, is the most populous county in the United States, with 9,663,345 residents estimated in 2023. Its population is greater than that of 40 individua ...

. Thomas was quoted as saying, "Over the three or four days, the companies and performers are here, they're definitely going to be scoping out

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

" as a new potential place to shoot scenes. She also stated, "We are some of the most tested people in the world. I think I can speak for most of the performers. We're not anti-condom. We're pro-choice." and expressed the sentiment that the government should not be inspecting her

genitalia A sex organ, also known as a reproductive organ, is a part of an organism that is involved in sexual reproduction. Sex organs constitute the primary sex characteristics of an organism. Sex organs are responsible for producing and transporting ...

, and she stressed the safety of the current testing conditions.

Personal life

Thomas was born in

Bloomfield, New Jersey Bloomfield is a township in Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, and an inner-ring suburb of Newark. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 53,105, an increase of 5,790 (+12.2%) from the 2010 census cou ...

and resides in

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona. With over 1.6 million residents at the 2020 census, it is the ...

. She is of

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

descent. During her temporary retirement, Thomas gained weight and took time to study

cosmetology Cosmetology (from Greek , ''kosmētikos'', "beautifying"; and , ''-logia'') is the study and application of beauty treatment. Branches of specialty include hairstyling, skin care, cosmetics, manicures/ pedicures, non-permanent hair removal suc ...

. She committed to reversing her weight gain and eventually met her weight loss goal in order to return to the adult film industry. In addition to her cosmetology studies, Thomas has also attended real estate school and has a

pharmacy technician A pharmacy technician (PhT) performs pharmacy-related functions including but not limited to filling out prescription medications. Training, certification, licensing, and actual practice of pharmacy technicians varies not only worldwide but in s ...

's license. In this period, Thomas kept a blog documenting her weight loss efforts.

Awards

* 2006

F.A.M.E. Award The Fans of Adult Media and Entertainment Awards (or F.A.M.E. Awards) were created in 2006 by ''Genesis (magazine), Genesis'', Adam & Eve (company), Adam & Eve, WantedList, Playboy Radio and ''AVN (magazine), AVN'' as a means for the general ...

– Dirtiest Girl in Porn * 2006

NightMoves Award The NightMoves Awards are given annually in the US pornographic film industry by ''NightMoves'', an Oldsmar, Florida-based magazine which was first published in 1987 and initially titled ''Sports South''. The awards began in 1993 and were initiall ...

– Best New Starlet (Editor's Choice)

References

External links

Official website
– Archived from the original on 6 November 2011 {{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Taryn 1983 births American pornographic film actresses Living people Actresses from Phoenix, Arizona People from Bloomfield, New Jersey Pornographic film actors from Arizona Pornographic film actors from New Jersey American female erotic dancers 21st-century American women Actors from Essex County, New Jersey