Smooth Stroke: Ryan Reid Playing to Win in Adult

This is the cover story of the March issue of AVN magazine. Click here for the digital issue. LOS ANGELES—Ryan Reid credits The Big Three for her thriving triple-X career. “It’s all thanks to Riley Reid, Spiegler and of course, Brazzers,” Ryan says. “I feel like without that trio I wouldn’t be shit. I wouldn’t be here. I probably would’ve quit.” But just over five years since her adult industry debut, Ryan Reid enters the spring armed with her first three AVN Awards and a Brazzers contract that’s roaring into its second full year. To say the 26-year-old, former cosmetologist from Pittsburgh is on a winning streak would be an understatement. “For starters Riley was such a positive influence in my career,” Ryan says of the 2016 AVN Female Performer of the Year who was inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame in January. “Because I get to see how she flourished and the paths she took to become who she is. And then having [agent Mark] Spiegler in addition to that. Spiegler has all the connects, he knows how to make his girls last. He’s not going to push you to do X, Y and Z. “And Brazzers in addition to those two things just lets me be the performer I want to be. “Whether it’s creating a porno or creating a wardrobe for the porno, Brazzers allows me to do that. Between the three I’m just a very spoiled, lucky girl.” Ryan dazzled on the AVN Awards Show stage on January 25 at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, accepting the trophy for Best Blowbang Scene for her terrific performance in “Blowbang in the Cage!” for Brazzers. In the no-holds-barred tussle—which was one of two AVN Award-winning career firsts for Reid—she plays the reigning and defending ZZ champion who is willing to stand and bang with all her challengers, at the same time. So Victor Ray, Sly Diggler, Scotty P, Nick Strokes and Hollywood Cash step up to face her. Reid also took home AVN gold for Best Double-Penetration Sex Scene for her wild classroom boff with Mick Blue and Hollywood Cash in “Learning How to Reid.” That scene marked her first DP either on or off camera. The vivacious performer claimed her third award at the 42nd annual ceremony for another team effort, shining in Brazzers’ epic “20 for 20” throwdown that captured Best Foursome/Orgy Scene. “This was my first year ever winning anything,” Reid says. “It still doesn’t feel real at all. I’ll walk into my office and I’m like, what are those? And why do I have those? I’m a nobody. What’s happening here? … It’s been a couple weeks and I still can’t believe it.” Ryan Hogan can. The Brazzers Senior Director for Paysites tells AVN the studio saw major star qualities in Reid many years prior to her getting an exclusive contract—which was announced at the Brazzers booth at the 2024 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo. “And she has always been a diehard for Brazzers,” Hogan says. “When we signed the contract, she promised to be our biggest cheerleader and to wear the brand on her sleeve every chance she could get. “She has maintained that for the past two years and is still as excited about it as the day it was announced on stage at AVN.” Hogan continues, “She also contributes a lot creatively. She is very collaborative and is determined to help outside of just performing. She comes to us with ideas and takes the time to develop them… She cares about the end product and understands the energy needed to create great scenes. “Because of that, I think she is an amazing representative who comes from the new generation of stars who came into porn via the creator world. She is also a smart-ass… Brazzers attracts smart-asses and that is not a bad thing.” One of Reid’s most frequent collaborators is Lexi Morin, who is Brazzers’ contract makeup artist and an emerging producer for the porn giant. It was Morin who produced and directed Reid’s triumphant “Blowbang in the Cage!” “We put all of our heart and soul into that shoot,” Lexi tells AVN. “It was a beautiful scene with no cuts. She just did the whole blowbang in one round and it was fascinating to see her do that. She deserved that win.” Morin left nothing to chance for Reid’s title defense, securing an actual MMA cage, hiring Ricky Johnson as the ring announcer and bringing in her cousin Vince Guzman, a pro MMA fighter, for stunt choreography. “It looked like they were really grappling,” Morin says. “I think it’s fun when you have someone like Ryan who is like, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’ She’s always down for it and it makes me want to do more cool things. I love working with Ryan.” Lexi also produced Reid’s first anal scene with a guy that ZZ released in October 2023. Titled “Anal Ground and Pound,” it featured Reid going toe-to-toe with Ricky Johnson in the cage. Morin most recently produced Ryan’s latest star vehicle, “Truckstop Fuckeries,” in which she plays a lot lizard—a concept that Ryan pitched to the ZZ brass herself. A former professional football player who has been the contract makeup artist for Brazzers for almost four years, the L.A. native Morin started in adult in 2011 with Reality Kings. Now she works almost daily as a makeup artist in addition to producing a few scenes a month. Morin got to know Reid before she was under contract. “Ever since the first day I was doing her makeup on a Reality Kings shoot she was like a powerhouse with her attitude and her energy,” Lexi says. Ryan even turned to Lexi to orchestrate her AVN cover shoot in which she shares her new passion for golf. “She’s 100 percent herself and what she stands for and she doesn’t care about what other people think,” Lexi adds. “I love to watch her grow as a performer. She used to be so scared of doing anal and now she’s giving tips to all these other girls. It’s a cool thing to see how far she’s come. She works really hard and she’s killing it.” It all started for Ryan when she was scrolling Instagram in 2018 and Riley Reid popped up on her Explore page. The superstar native of Miami, who established herself as one of the most influential stars in the world in the past 13 years, now is a seasoned executive producer, director, creator and entrepreneur who remains one of the most downloaded performers in porn history. “I just graduated high school and I had no idea, as in like porn stars,” Ryan Reid recalls. “I knew they existed but I didn’t have like a favorite, I didn’t know who was who. “And I was like, who is this girl? She’s so hot…I’ve always kind of liked girls and I commented on one of her pictures and I was like, ‘Oh my god, you’re so hot!’ Not knowing that she was a fucking porn star.” Ryan continues, “And then she DM’d me and she was like, ‘You’re a catfish, you’re not even real. You’re too cute…’ Because I didn’t have a following or anything. “I was like, ‘No, I swear I’m real! I’m not catfishing anyone!’ And she was like, ‘Send a picture with a shoe on your head, so I know you’re real.’ “And I took a picture with a shoe on my head. And then by the time I went to send her the picture with the shoe on my head, she sent me a picture with a shoe on her head. “It was just a fun, flirty dynamic between us from Day One.” Riley invited Ryan to her birthday party that same weekend in L.A. “And I was like I’m from Pittsburgh. That’s like almost impossible,” Ryan says. “And at the time I was a cosmetologist and I was like you know what, why not spend my savings that I have at this point on a flight to L.A. and I went to her birthday party. And we became really good friends instantly, we just clicked.” Riley Reid recalls how she didn’t believe Ryan was an actual person at first. “I definitely thought she was a catfish!” Riley says. “The photo with the shoe on the head is real… I thought it would be hard to find a picture of a girl with a shoe on her head! “Honestly, in the beginning she was just a hot girl who I was friends with. I invited her to a birthday party and she flew out to come and meet me. It was super random but at that time I wanted to be surrounded by hot girls for my birthday! Her and I hit it off really good and became really close friends. Over the next few years we grew closer and closer and are genuine friends. “I know her mother, and we’ve had a lot of really intimate moments that brought us really close.” After their initial hangout, Ryan returned to her life in western Pennsylvania for another year, keeping in touch with Riley primarily on social media. “And then her birthday rolled around again and she was like, ‘Are you coming to my birthday again this year?’” Ryan says. Now in a better financial position with an OnlyFans and premium Snapchat to go with her salon job, Ryan didn’t hesitate, flying to L.A. again for Riley’s birthday and then staying even longer. “And I was like, I kind of think I want to move out here,” Ryan says. “I kind of want to do this, this seems fun. This seems like something I’m 100 percent into. I ended up staying an extra week or two and doing collabs with other performers. And I was like this makes sense to me. This feels natural, I don’t feel like I’m doing work.” When Reid got back to Pittsburgh she talked to her mother, who wasn’t thrilled with the idea of her youngest daughter moving out. But Ryan had her mind made up and a month later, she loaded up a U-Haul and drove to L.A. in three days. She stayed in a less-than-ideal, shared AirBnB room inside a house when she got to Cali. “I was picking out clothes every day out of the U-Haul living in this AirBnB and then looking every single day for apartments, nonstop,” Ryan says. “And finally I found one. It was the last day I had the AirBnB rented for. It’s weird how it all worked out.” When she got accepted for an apartment, she wasn’t able to move in for three more days so she lived out of her car. Riley says once she realized that Ryan was serious about doing mainstream porn that she was glad to steer her in certain directions. “When it came to being in a mainstream porn setting I never really pressure or encourage girls to do that. It was mostly something she wanted to explore,” Riley tells AVN. “She was doing OnlyFans and wanted to learn more about how porn works. “We did a really fun ‘Day in the Life’ YouTube video while filming her first girl/girl on set for ReidMyLips.com [in 2019]. It was on that day that I realized what a natural talent she had.” Riley continues, “Her performance was so good and she was incredible. She knew how to open up to the camera, she knew how to be exaggerating in her face. Every detail of the porn shoot was just so natural, when some people who have been in porn for years still don’t understand the anatomy of being on set the way she did on her first day. “Once we shot that was when I really wanted to help her get into porn if it was something she wanted to do, which in time was what she wanted. I introduced her to Spiegler and shot a Brazzers scene with her in my ‘retirement.’ But honestly she just has a natural talent for porn. “Plus she is such a fun and silly girl. She’s either going to be your new best friend or she may just not like you! That’s one thing I love about her, she is not afraid to say what’s on her mind even if it maybe isn’t the nicest thing. “She is proud of who she is and she is 100 percent authentically her. She has a bubbly personality that is so fun to be around and she’s sexy! I just basically introduced her to all the right people and she did the rest on her own! And now she is an AVN winner and a Brazzers contract star!” Riley adds, “It’s beautiful to see the career she has built for herself! I’m so proud of the family she has created for herself and so happy to have helped her find a community of people who love her for the wild woman she is.” Ryan did her first mainstream scene for Brazzers in late 2021 with Hall of Fame ZZ stud Keiran Lee. Titled “Bossing Her Around,” Ryan plays Keiran’s secretary in the brief setup before Lee dominates her. “When Ryan first stepped on set, I just knew she was destined to be a Brazzers contract star, her performance was electric,” Lee tells AVN. “You could tell she loved what she did. “When they announced she was signing as an exclusive contract girl it was no surprise because of her unwavering dedication, consistent hard work and the incredible talent she brings to the table.” In Ryan’s most recent Brazzers scene that was released on Feb. 26, she meets veteran deal-closer JMac for an encounter titled “Ex-Con Gets His Meat Beat.” JMac, who has over two decades in adult, came away impressed. “Ryan and I met off set at a convention and she had that cute, innocent look to her but also a sexual energy that you can see in her eyes,” JMac tells AVN. “We instantly wanted to work together. It took some time but when we got booked it was an amazing scene and she is an amazing performer.” It’s why when she stepped onto the AVN Awards stage in January Spiegler couldn’t help but be a little misty-eyed. The Hall of Fame agent knew she had “raw talent” from the start. It was just a matter of guiding her. “She’s pretty, she’s a great performer and she’s a really good person,” Spiegler, who has repped nine of the past 12 Female Performer of the Year winners, tells AVN. “And she’s got this outsized personality and that’s the greatest aspect of her.” Spiegler adds, “She listens, she answers the phone whenever we call, she’s open to suggestions and she’s genuinely a good kid.” Photography by @benjixbenjiHair, makeup & styling by @lexi72love