Asia Carrera was born Jessica Steinhauser in New York City to a German mother and Japanese father, the oldest of four siblings. She was raised on Lippincott Road in Little Silver, New Jersey, attending Red Bank Regional High School. At the age of 16, she taught English at Tsuruga College in Tsuruga, Fukui, Japan.
Carrera won a National Merit Scholarship and scored over 1440 on the SAT, as well as a Garden State Scholarship for her grades. She attended Rutgers University on full academic scholarship, where she majored in Japanese and business, but did not graduate. Carrera is a member of Mensa, with an IQ of 156.
Carrera’s adult film career started in 1993. In 1995, she became the first Asian performer ever to win the AVN Female Performer of the Year Award. Carrera retired from the film industry in 2003, following her marriage to Don Lemmon.
Carrera lent her voice to several erotic hentai OVAs for publisher Pink Pineapple, such as Inmu (2001) and Shusaku (1999). In October 2001, Carrera attended the Big Apple Anime Fest in New York City for her voice roles and along with Kobe Tai was an Opening Night Guest of Honor at the fest’s Midnight Anime Concourse.
Carrera was also in the 2012 documentary After Porn Ends, which documents the lives of actors after they leave the adult film industry. In the documentary, she discusses her membership in Mensa. Despite being a celebrity member of the group, the organization refused to link to her website because it contained pornographic elements.
Other work
In 1998, she appeared in an uncredited cameo role in the film The Big Lebowski in the faux pornographic movie Logjammin’ within the film.
Carrera was a guest reviewer for Maximum PC magazine.
