Kayden Kross
Career
Kross was a Penthouse cover model and its Pet of the Month for September 2008, and built a competitive award record through the early 2010s before shifting almost entirely to directing and producing. AVN inducted her into its Hall of Fame in 2019 and XRCO followed in 2022. She co-founded Deeper, a Vixen Media Group label, in 2019, and has written columns for Complex and XBIZ, one of the few performers in this field with an ongoing byline in a mainstream outlet. Trade press has credited her with multiple Director of the Year wins and nominations from XBIZ, AVN and NightMoves between 2015 and 2025, though the exact tally varies by source and is not scored here.
Signature: The Penthouse cover credit and the September 2008 Pet of the Month title both predate her move into directing by roughly a decade, giving her one of the more complete performer-to-director arcs on this list.
Index score — The Pornstar Ranked Performer Index v3.0
Scores are normalised within a single ranking's field, so this breakdown is Kayden Kross's placement inside Nude Pornstars, Ranked by Documented Photography and Print Credits — the largest field she appears in. Her rank on each of the other 5 rankings below was computed against that ranking's own field and is not the same measurement.
Full award record6 entries
- 2008Penthouse — Pet of the Month (September)
- 2009Hot d'Or — Best American Starlet
- 2011AVN — Best All-Girl Group Sex Scene
- 2011XBIZ — Acting Performance of the Year, Female
- 2019AVN — Hall of Fame
- 2022XRCO — Hall of Fame
Best known for
Studios
Beyond performing
- Co-founded Deeper (Vixen Media Group label, 2019)
- Columnist for Complex and XBIZ magazines
Mainstream credits
- Penthouse cover model
Official links
Appears in
Also ranked on
Ranked alongside
Sources and verification3 sources
- Exact count of later Director of the Year wins varies by source
