Daya Knight: 'You Never Know Until You Try'

Daya Knight is featured in the July issue of AVN magazine. Click here for the full digital edition. Photo above by Rick Garcia/@IndustryByRick Two-year veteran Daya Knight started at age 19. "I noticed that a lot of my favorite performers had agents in their bios. I made a few contacts and came to L.A. from Oakland a couple of days later. I told myself if I don’t like it, I'll do my first scene, cut my losses, go back home and pretend like nothing ever happened. But I liked it. I kept coming back to L.A. and eventually moved here." That first scene was a casting couch scenario for Net Video Girls, "and I liked it for a first shoot because I could act as nervous as I actually was. I didn't have to pretend to be a super-slutty porn star. It was a positive experience and they were super-sweet to me." Knight likes that working as a performer lets her express her sexuality. "You tell a civilian guy that you want to be blindfolded and whipped or something, some of them will go running for the hills or think you're some sex-crazy deviant. Some will be into it. I have more room to express myself. Also, I get feedback from fans. That fuels me." Daya Knight in Open My Ass 3 (LeWood/Evil Angel) Fans can find her in some 70 scenes, including multiple shoots with Bang, Dogfart, Devil's Film and Team Skeet. She's also shot with Evil Angel's LeWood Productions for Open My Ass 3, for Wicked in Axel Braun's Brown Sugar 2 and for Jules Jordan in Manuel Ferrara's Special Dark 3. Her favorite scenes so far include a Hard X scene with Markus Dupree. "I had been wanting to work with Mason for so long so I was super excited when I showed up. She focuses a lot on the girls. The scene was really intense and hardcore. A lot of my scenes aren’t hardcore, so I enjoyed being able to do something different." Another favorite was for ArchAngel's Black Romance with Isiah Maxwell. "I like shooting with him so much. I don't shoot with a lot of black talent, so when I do I get super excited. Isiah is one of my favorites and the scene was so cool: he fed me strawberries, I was blindfolded, it was very romantic. "I'd like to get booked with more black guys, but they tell me interracial is the thing right now," Knight commented. "And then I get backlash from some fans: 'You don't like your own people.' The black male performers get it too. It makes me feel bad, like I'm doing something wrong. But I go where they book me. You need to tell your favorite directors when you want to see." In future, she'd like to work for Greg Lansky. "I like the way that he shoots, it's very classy," she said. And Jonni Darkko: "I love his DVDs. He makes the girls look so hot. His makeup artist is fucking fantastic. The scenes aren't cutesy, they're hardcore and I love it." Knight says Mike Adriano is another director she'd like to be on set with. "I've always wanted to shot for Swallowed. I like how they dress the girls all colorful and pretty—right before he shoves his dick in their ass," she says, laughing. Her words to live by are "You never know until you try": "I always used to let the what-ifs get in the way of me ever doing anything at all.  I would freak myself out with possible outcomes to the point that I just wouldn’t do anything at all. Many times I thought things would turn out negatively and they turned out extremely positive. I'm trying to put myself out there, not worried about what-if and what will people think or say." Follow Daya Knight on Twitter (@dayaknight) and Instagram (OnlyDayaKnight) Photo of Daya Knight by Rick Garcia