Up Close With Hussie Models

LOS ANGELES—Riley Reynolds remembers what it was like trying to build a talent agency all by himself. “I was a one-man army for the longest time,” Reynolds recalls. “And that's before Uber was around or anything like that. So I used to do the driving. I did the bookkeeping, I did literally everything. “I had no help and people always told me I needed help, but it was always tough for me to find it.” Now as he reflects on 11 years of Hussie Models this month, he credits the small but passionate team around him—namely Samantha Beatrice and Alex Mack—as the primary drivers of Hussie’s success. Mack, an AVN Award-winning performer and seasoned producer, joined Hussie 15 months ago as an agent, while Beatrice handles just about everything aside from booking the models. The trio communicates multiple times per day even though they’re based in different parts of North America. “My circle is very small,” Reynolds tells AVN. “Me and Alex have the same responsibilities, just different talents that we manage. And then Samantha is just like the glue to it all.” Montreal native Beatrice manages Hussie’s social media and model communications, handles event coordination, does website updates and steers the agency’s public relations efforts in coordination with BSG PR, among other duties. “I have to thank Jay Zito for putting us together,” Reynolds says of the veteran director. “Shout out, Jay Zito. He saw that I was struggling and I needed some help and he was like, ‘Samantha could do so much for you. Just give her a shot.’ “And I did—and I absolutely love her to death.” Meanwhile, Reynolds says that Mack surprised him when they were at a gathering and he asked if he could use another agent. The A-list Russian performer is a former IT specialist and nightclub host who won the 2021 AVN Award for Best Male Newcomer. “I talk so highly about him all the time,” Riley says. “I love these two absolutely to death.” Mack, who plans to move from Las Vegas back to L.A. this month, gives Hussie a strong presence on the West Coast, while Reynolds takes care of the East Coast business from his home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Hussie makes the most of its bi-coastal reach, according to Beatrice. “We're flourishing,” Beatrice says. “We have new applicants come in all the time. We're working on making our site a little easier for creators to apply on and we’re working on building other connections for brand deals to move things past just the professional studio side. “Overall everyone in our agency is doing super well and working right now.” Beatrice brings years of experience in digital marketing and consulting for various brands to her role. “I've had my hands kind of in everything industry-wise for the past 10-ish years,” says Samantha, who is still based in Quebec. Hussie at the beginning of April had 105 models on its roster who are spread out across L.A., Las Vegas, Arizona and Florida. The agency reps about 70 girls and 30 guys—it also books trans models such as the reigning AVN Trans Performer of the Year Brittany Kade. “We’ve been bigger,” Reynolds reveals. “We actually downsized. We were around 130-ish.” “I think this is a pretty good sweet spot,” Beatrice tells AVN, emphasizing the diversity of the current lineup. “We have talent in every niche and I think that's really important. You also don't want to over-compete with yourself on models. So I think maintaining a good diversity and bringing in new names and fresh faces that the industry hasn't seen is something that we’re really strong in as well.” Reynolds notes that Hussie doesn’t do buyouts with models who would like to move on. “So they're more than welcome to leave at any time if they want,” Reynolds says. “That also speaks volumes that they're with us and they're not being forced to stay with us.” Mack, who has a master’s degree in economics, reps 28 performers—18 girls and 10 guys—including 2025 AVN Hottest Newcomer Dan Dangler, December 2024 AVN CAMStar Cubbi Thompson and rising newcomer Brandy Salazar. “She just started a couple months ago and has huge potential,” Mack says. “And of course Melissa Stratton is another superstar who is on the roster.” Alex explains the career path for guys is much different than girls—for starters they must prove themselves over a longer period of time. “The guy right now needs to do so much more in the mainstream to get yourself out there in my opinion,” Alex continues. “Of course, there's way more male talent right now than there used to be. I have some brand new guys but also some veterans like Damon Dice and legends like John Strong. I think we're doing a pretty good job.” Reynolds points to a large group of standout models whom he books such as Chloe Temple, Khloe Kapri, Addison Vodka, Molly Little, Madison Wilde, Serena Hill, Venus Vixen, Lily Lou and Kade. He also touts surging rookie Sasha Tatcha, Sophie Tyler and Alex Blake, who recently re-signed with Hussie after an extended break.  Reynolds’ stable of guys includes primetime performers such as Jax Slayher, Damion Dayski, Nade Nasty, G.I. Joey and Ethan Seeks. He tells AVN one of Hussie’s strengths is their willingness to listen to talent. “I would say that we're very easy to come and talk to,” Riley says. “We’re not only their agents, we're their friends. Sometimes we're little mini therapists. Sometimes we're anger management counselors. We help them if they're upset about something, we calm them down. We help solve the problem.” Mack says his main goal is “to help models in every way I can.” “With my background as a performer, producer and now as an agent for 15 months, I'm trying to experiment with how I do the schedule, how I can better assist the talent even in a way that might not be beneficial for me and for the agency in terms of let's say, a financial side of it,” Alex tells AVN. “But sometimes gratitude is the best reward. “So there's certain models I represent that don't really need an agent, but they always need good advice. As long as we can make their lives a little bit easier.” Beatrice says both Mack and Reynolds bring their own unique qualities to talent management, but overall Hussie excels with “the way the agency supports the individual talent and cares for their well-being and is willing to be flexible with them.” “They can always come to us with something,” Samantha continues. “We take safety on set really seriously. We take what models are prioritizing really seriously as well. And I think we're really strong in ensuring we have our models' names out there and are promoting them.” Reynolds also says he makes sure models remember that he works for them, not vice versa. “I consistently say that,” Riley adds.    And everything starts with consistency, Beatrice says. “I think you just need to establish positive relationships and build from there,” she tells AVN. “There’s a lot of models that choose to stay with us or return to us because of the culture that we've created as a business.” Mack acknowledges the agency space is as competitive as ever, but he sees that only as a positive for the industry. “It’s healthy to have multiple good agencies,” Alex says. “Because just physically we can't represent everybody, you can't just have 300 people on your roster. For example, I'm very close with Mark [Schechter] from ATMLA. If there’s a situation happening in the industry, we know we can call each other and talk about it. So there's not any kind of hate.” “There’s enough pie for us all to eat from,” Riley adds. Mack says he’s taken a bit of a step back from performing because of his responsibilities as an agent. “I would say the role of the agent became number one,” Alex tells AVN. “I'm very selective—like only if I'm interested in the project, I like the producer or like the director, stuff like that. “But for the most part I just can't do it like I did before and shoot 30 scenes a month.” Reynolds also runs two websites—HussiePass and SeeHimFuck—producing a total of 10 scenes a month. Prior to adult, he was working as a dishwasher at Outback Steakhouse when an opportunity arose to purchase a webcam site—in 2011. “This guy told me I could buy it for $10,000. So I got all the money put together and I buy it and that went very south but it opened the door for me to go into the industry,” Reynolds says. “And then I got into porn from webcamming and that's where it all changed for me.” He says building Hussie has been a grueling but rewarding experience. “Whenever people are always like, ‘What gives you the motivation to just keep going?’—because they see that sometimes the job of being an agent can be very stressful—it’s because I never want to go back to where I was,” Riley says. “So you always keep pushing forward. And like everyone says, if something's easy, everyone would do it. “So I'm learning that with music now.” Reynolds began DJing two years ago and started producing electronic music in August. “It's a hobby,” he says. “It's a nice stress reliever.” This Saturday night he’ll by spinning the closing set for Adventure Club from 2:30 to 4 a.m. at the Kemistry Nightclub in Fort Lauderdale. As the group looks ahead, they remain focused on broadening the opportunities models have outside of studio bookings. “It might be more long-term versus short, but providing additional opportunities with brands—whether that be toy brands, supplement brands—there's a lot of places where we can be putting their faces,” Beatrice says. “And I think that's something that I really want us to focus on in 2025, is being an agency that can offer multiple facets to support their growth in their careers. “In the short term, we are always watching for ways that we can improve in terms of communication with producers and with the ease of use of our website. And we like to have visibility at conventions and make sure our models are well-informed of events happening in the industry.” Reynolds adds, “I have something I'm working on. I can't really talk about it too much, but I have a very big project that's going to be coming to the industry. So there's something in the kitchen being cooked. “I found a problem and I'm solving it.”