Porn Star 2023: The Performers Who Defined the Year, Ranked

The Pornstar Ranked Editorial Desk Adult-industry research team

Updated 22 August 2026

Type "porn star 2023" into a search bar and you get two different questions tangled into one keyword, and almost no page on the results separates them.

One question is which ceremony honoured 2023 work — and that has a precise, checkable answer, because award bodies are named for the year they hold their ceremony, not the year of work they reward.

The 41st AVN Awards and the XBIZ Awards 2024 were both held in January 2024, and both honoured releases from calendar 2023.

The other question is which performer actually had the year — and that is where most competing lists quietly go wrong, crediting a 2023-ceremony win (which honours 2022 work) to "2023" because the ceremony happened to say so on the trophy.

The short answer

Maitland Ward ranks first for porn star 2023 on our index. The former Boy Meets World and Bold and the Beautiful actress won AVN Best Actress – Featurette for her 2023 work, and her full crossover and acting-award record — built across both mainstream television and five years of adult-industry honours — outweighs any single-award case on this list. Vanna Bardot ranks second, the only performer confirmed to have swept Female Performer of the Year at AVN, XBIZ and XRCO in the same season for 2023 work. Kira Noir ranks third with an AVN Best Actress win for Machine Gunner.

All 15, ranked

Sort by any column. Full profiles follow below; the scoring rubric that produced this order is at the foot of the page.

15 performers

#	Performer	Index	Active	Wins	HoF	Strongest pillar	Data
1	Maitland Ward Network sitcom regular who became a multiple AVN and XBIZ Best Actress winner	98.4	2019	10	—	Industry Recognition	high
2	Vanna Bardot A hairstylist until 18, Performer of the Year at three bodies by 25	93.1	2018	4	—	Body of Work	medium
3	Kira Noir Performer of the Year at 28, and now sits on the PASS board	89.8	2014	5	1×	Influence & Crossover	medium
4	Seth Gamble XBIZ’s single, gender-neutral Performer of the Year title for 2023 work	86.5	2008	7	—	Longevity & Consistency	medium
5	Vince Karter AVN Male Foreign Performer of the Year for 2023, then the outright title twice	85.5	null	6	—	Industry Recognition	medium
6	Tommy Pistol A same-ceremony Best Actor and Best Actor – Featurette double for 2023 work	84.1	2005	5	—	Longevity & Consistency	high
7	Emma Rose Back-to-back AVN Transgender Performer of the Year, including 2023 work	83.9	2020	3	—	Body of Work	medium
8	Chanel Camryn Turned a Best New Starlet double win into an XRCO Female Performer of the Year the next year	80.9	2022	7	—	Industry Recognition	medium
9	Aidra Fox A decade-plus veteran’s AVN Best All-Girl Group Sex Scene for 2023 work	79.5	2013	8	—	Longevity & Consistency	medium
10	Derek Kage The opening year of a three-peat XBIZ Gay Performer of the Year run	76.5	null	3	—	Industry Recognition	medium
11	Gizelle Blanco XBIZ Girl/Girl Performer of the Year for 2023 work	75.0	2020	1	—	Body of Work	low
12	Cherry Kiss AVN Female Foreign Performer of the Year for 2023 work	74.5	2011	2	—	Longevity & Consistency	medium
13	Isiah Maxwell AVN Male Performer of the Year, 2024 — the first Black winner since Lexington Steele in 2003	73.4	null	4	—	Industry Recognition	medium
14	Victoria Voxxx A same-season AVN and XBIZ Best Supporting Actress double for 2023 work	72.4	null	4	—	Body of Work	medium
15	Nicole Kitt XBIZ Best Acting – Lead for 2023 work, in Ashford Manor	69.3	2020	2	—	Longevity & Consistency	medium

Hall of Fame inductions across the list

Verified competitive award wins

8,220

Combined years active

118

Names on the longlist before cuts

81.5

Average index score of the top 20

Wins count verified competitive awards only; nominations are shown on each profile but excluded from this column. “Data” is our confidence in the underlying record — see each profile for exactly which fields are unconfirmed.

The ranking

The 15 best, ranked

Each profile carries the same structure: verified facts, the score breakdown across all six pillars, our argument for the placement, the counter-argument, the full award record, and the sources.

Toglenn · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

1. Maitland Ward

Network sitcom regular who became a multiple AVN and XBIZ Best Actress winner

98.4

Index

active high confidence 10 verified wins

Also ranks #2on Hollywood Porn Stars #2on Viral Porn Stars #6on Dirty Talking Pornstars

Born

1977Long Beach, California

Age

Active

2019–Mainstream screen career 1994–2007; entered adult film in 2019 and has worked continuously since.

Credits

—5 studios

Height

—

Hair / Eyes

—not documented

Why Maitland ranks 1st

Ward played Rachel McGuire on Boy Meets World and Jessica Forrester on The Bold and the Beautiful before retiring from mainstream acting and entering adult film in 2019, a transition she documented in her 2022 memoir Rated X — the crossover that ranks her second on our Hollywood porn stars roll.

Her most decorated adult season, built around the film Drift, was honoured at the ceremony for 2022 work — one year before this article’s scope.

Her actual 2023-work credential is narrower but real: AVN Best Actress – Featurette for Casting Couch: My DP 6, won at the 41st AVN Awards in January 2024, confirmed directly against that ceremony’s own winners list.

The mainstream-to-adult crossover story is one of the most heavily covered individual narratives in 2023-era trade and entertainment press, and her record is one of the few in that category that holds up against the ceremony pages rather than just the headlines.

The case against: Her career-peak season, built around Drift, was honoured at the ceremony for 2022 work rather than 2023 — the win that actually anchors her here is a single Featurette-category title, not her strongest year.

Ranked alongside

Score breakdown

Industry Recognition 32%

9.9

Body of Work 14%

9.9

Show all six pillars (4 more) Show fewer

Audience Demand 28%

9.9

Craft & Screen Presence 12%

9.9

Longevity & Consistency 4%

8.5

Influence & Crossover 10%

9.9

Career and credits

Career

Born Ashley Maitland Welkos in Long Beach, California, she played Jessica Forrester in 129 episodes of the CBS daytime serial The Bold and the Beautiful between 1994 and 1996, winning a Young Artist Award for the role in 1995, then joined the main cast of ABC’s Boy Meets World as Rachel McGuire for 45 episodes from 1998 to 2000. Her best-known feature credit is Brittany Wilson in the 2004 Wayans Brothers comedy White Chicks. She began posting nude photography to social media from mid-2013, signed with the Society 15 agency in May 2019, and made her adult debut that September in Drive, directed by Kayden Kross for Deeper. She has won AVN Best Actress or Best Supporting Actress four times and XBIZ lead-acting awards in four separate years.

Signature: She is the only person on either side of this page to hold both a Young Artist Award for network television and multiple AVN and XBIZ acting awards, and the only one to have written a book making the crossing itself the subject.

Best known for

Drive (2019, Deeper)Muse (2020, Deeper)Muse 2 (2021, Deeper)Drift (2022, Deeper)American MILF (2024)

Studios

DeeperBlackedBrazzersJules JordanVR Bangers

Award record

1995Young Artist Awards — Best Performance by a Youth Actress in a Daytime Series — The Bold and the Beautiful
2020AVN — Best Supporting Actress

Show full award record (8 more) Show fewer

2020AVN — Best Three-Way Sex Scene
2020AVN — Favorite Camming Cosplayer (fan-voted)
2020XBIZ — Best Actress — Feature Movie (Drive)
2021AVN — Best Leading Actress — Muse
2021XBIZ — Best Acting — Lead (Muse)
2022XBIZ — Best Acting — Lead (Muse 2)
2023AVN — Best Actress — Drift
2025XBIZ — Best Acting — Lead (American MILF)

Beyond performing

Rated X: How Porn Liberated Me from Hollywood (Atria Books, 2022)
Direct-to-subscriber platform business

Mainstream credits

The Bold and the Beautiful (1994–1996, 129 episodes)
Boy Meets World (1998–2000, 45 episodes)
Killing Mr. Griffin (1997)
Dish Dogs (2000)
White Chicks (2004)
Boston Public
Rules of Engagement

Official links

X Instagram Facebook Reddit TikTok Linktree

Sources and verification5 sources

Last audited 22 August 2026 · Wikipedia — Maitland Ward · Wikipedia — 37th AVN Awards (winners list) · Wikipedia — 38th AVN Awards (winners list) · Wikipedia — 40th AVN Awards (winners list) · Wikipedia — XBIZ Award (winners by category)

Not yet confirmed:

A widely repeated XBIZ Performer of the Year win for 2022 — we could not confirm it against XBIZ’s own published category tables and have not scored it
Total credit count
Physical statistics

Holly Randall Unfiltered · CC BY 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

2. Vanna Bardot

A hairstylist until 18, Performer of the Year at three bodies by 25

93.1

Index

active medium confidence 4 verified wins

Also ranks #5on Pornstar #7on Figure Pornstars #10on Teen Pornstars on Flexible Pornstars

Born

1999Miami, Florida

Age

Active

2018–2018–present

Credits

—

Height

—

Hair / Eyes

Brunettenot documented

Why Vanna ranks 2nd

Bardot’s 2023 is the single cleanest case this article has: she is the only performer confirmed to hold Female Performer of the Year from all three major bodies — AVN, XBIZ and XRCO — for the same season, at the three ceremonies held between January and spring 2024 that honoured calendar-2023 work.

She had already won XBIZ’s title once before, at the ceremony honouring 2022 work, so 2023 was her second consecutive XBIZ crown as well as her first from AVN and XRCO.

A former hairstylist and club dancer from Miami — the background that also ranks her second on the best figure pornstars list — who debuted in 2018 and signed an exclusive contract with Slayed, a Vixen Media Group label, in 2022, she went into 2023 already established and came out of it the only performer in the field with a genuine three-body sweep.

The case against: The sweep is her whole case — she holds no acting-specific award to sit alongside the overall title, and the run sits on top of a five-year career rather than a longer one.