“Meteoric” is not a strong enough word to describe May’s ascension in the adult industry.

According to her agent, May was booked approximately 100 times between May and December of 2023. Her third shoot was an anal scene, and after May moved to Los Angeles in June, it wasn’t uncommon for her to work five days a week.

Brazzers, Vixen, Nubiles, BANG! and Evil Angel were among the A-list studios to book May multiple times during that span. In January of 2024, the day she turned 19, May was on set for MissaX.

“A lot of people come into the industry wanting to be that ‘Yes’ girl who does everything, and that was definitely the case with Rissa,” Penelope Woods, May’s close friend and roommate, says. “She got overwhelmed pretty fast. I had to tell her, ‘Slow down a little bit. Don’t force things. Take a breath.’”

***

As her senior year neared its end in the spring of 2023, things were looking up for Rissa May and her family. Her brother, who received a full scholarship to Michigan State, graduated with a nursing degree. After making all As and Bs in high school, Rissa was determined to follow in his footsteps and enroll in college.

But in April—about a month before graduation—May’s plans changed.

She opened an anonymous Twitter account and posted a few faceless nudes online. The decision wasn’t all that shocking, as May had been boy-crazy and obsessed with sex ever since she began watching porn in elementary school.

Early on, May searched for videos of basic stuff, like girls kissing, before eventually moving on to hardcore content. May lost her virginity at age 14 and masturbated daily throughout high school. By her senior year, May had become enamored with rough intercourse, which she eventually incorporated into her own sex life by asking her boyfriends to face-fuck and choke her.

May had also grown accustomed to receiving attention for her breasts, which began growing in the third grade. She was a fifth-grader when her classmates began accusing her of stuffing her bra. But the reality was that May was a natural D-cup.

“I’d always see older men staring at me when I was younger, because of the titties,” May says. “It felt kind of weird. I liked them for a while, but as I got older and into high school, I got very insecure about them.”

During hookups May often tried to hide her breasts, prompting her partners to beg her to uncover them.

“Guys liked them,” May says, “but I felt like they weren’t proportionate to my body. I’m a smaller girl, but I have these big tits. I wanted small, perky tits. I actually thought about getting a breast reduction.”

Those thoughts disappeared shortly after May posted her nudes on Twitter. As she sifted through her replies, she stumbled across the website for East Coast Talent, which represents some of the top models in porn. May researched the agency and was shocked at how easy it was to enter the industry.

She filled out an application and immediately heard from East Coast Talent owner John O’Byrne, who was so enthralled by May’s photos that he offered to book her for a shoot with Backroom Casting Couch in Arizona a few weeks later. May accepted, and her trip to Phoenix marked the first time she’d ever been on an airplane.

“The money was a big part of it,” May says. “But I’m hyper-sexual and get horny a lot. I thought, ‘I can get paid to fuck? This is a no-brainer.’”

May’s inaugural scene created such a buzz that another studio, Real College Teens, flew to Detroit to shoot with her on graduation day. A return trip to Phoenix for an anal scene quickly followed, and after that May was hooked.

With her mother's blessing, she decided to move to Los Angeles to pursue her adult career in earnest.

“At that point, I was determined to move forward. I was determined to be successful.”

***

When Isiah Maxwell arrived on set for his first shoot with Rissa May in 2023, the director informed him that May was 18 years old. Maxwell—AVN’s reigning Male Performer of the Year—could muster only one word.

“Whaattttt?” he said.

One year later, Maxwell still has trouble processing it.

“She seems more like a 23-year-old,” he says. “It’s her persona and aura. She’s an incredibly sweet girl who is very polished—not just as a person, but as a performer, too.

“She’s got a lot of natural porn instincts that are really going to help her succeed.”

Whether it’s a high-level pipe layer like Maxwell or Mick Blue or a sultry seductress such as Lilly Bell or Scarlett Alexis, virtually everyone who has worked with May shares the same sentiment. Whereas most new girls take a year or so to “grow into the business,” May was a ready-made performer the moment she entered the adult industry.

Her popularity soared so quickly that her agent, John O’Byrne, had to turn away studios who wanted to schedule May for a shoot.

“We literally ran out of dates on her schedule,” O’Byrne says. “It got to the point where, if you wanted Rissa on your set, you needed to book her two months in advance.”

Arguably, no male performer is a bigger Rissa May fan than Mike Adriano, who has shot approximately 15 times with the buxom beauty in the last 18 months. Adriano says he hasn’t even looked at the metrics and views for May’s scenes on his website.

“I don’t need to,” he laughed. “I know what people want to see, and that’s someone like Rissa. She’s young, she’s gorgeous, she’s got a great body—and it’s obvious she loves what she’s doing because she smiles the whole time.

“I’m going to keep booking her as much as possible. I don’t need stats to tell me I should do it. It’s a no-brainer.”

The positive feedback has been comforting to May, who feared she “wasn’t pretty enough” for porn when she applied to her agency back in May of 2023.

Immediately upon joining the industry, colleagues and fans were fawning over May’s appearance. Whether it was her natural 34DD breasts, her firm butt or her powerful smile, seemingly every part of her body was a target for praise.

“It was a huge confidence boost for me, and I needed that,” May says. “I started loving my body more and feeling way less insecure about it. I thought my tits were ugly before but now I don’t think anything of it.

“I take my clothes off all the time, without hesitation. I’m just like ‘Oh yeah, that’s me.’”

Just as her career was taking off, May’s personal life was elevating, too. She formed close bonds with Woods, Raven Lane, Summer Vixen and other performers who stayed at the East Coast Model house. They scheduled beach days around shoots in Miami and became regulars at Korean barbecue joints in L.A. May tried sushi for the first time—she still can’t handle rolls wrapped in seaweed—and began getting regular massages.

“It all happened so fast,” she says. “I could basically afford whatever I wanted and not have to worry about whether it was going to put me in debt. It was a nice feeling, knowing I was going to be secure.”

May’s porn honeymoon lasted more than six months before things hit an inevitable snag. As her scene count neared 100, her body began to wear down. During one taxing stretch, May shot five days in a row for PornPros, followed by three straight days for Team Skeet.

May contracted asymptomatic MGEN in November and a painful urinary tract infection (UTI) soon after.

“Being booked so much started to affect me mentally,” she said. “I started to feel like I wasn’t cared about. It was like, ‘She’s here to make money. That’s all. Nothing else.’”

May’s breaking point came on her 19th birthday in January. Instead of celebrating with friends, she spent the day on a set.

“It finally hit me, where I was like, ‘Yeah, this is a little too much,’” May says. “I felt like the universe was telling me, ‘Hey, you need a break.’”

May shot a few more scenes in January and then went on a seven-month hiatus, choosing to move to Las Vegas to live with her then-boyfriend. May occasionally talked with Woods and Lane, but for the most part, she was completely removed from the industry.

“When you first get into porn, everything is so fun and new,” Woods says. “You’re on that high. You’re making good money for the first time in your life, and you feel so cool and popular because you’re getting so much dick.

“But then the burnout sets in. The high wears off, and you realize it’s just work. It becomes a mental fuck, and you have to pause and gather yourself a bit.”

Lane agrees. Taking breaks, she says, isn’t a sign of weakness. It’s a sign of strength.

“Everyone needs to step away sometimes—it’s healthy,” Lane says. “It’s good to process things and focus on other areas of your life. Rissa was at a point where she needed a break.

“Honestly, it was the best thing she could’ve done.”

Indeed, refreshed and rejuvenated, May returned in August and has been on a roll ever since. She remains in high demand—perhaps more than ever—with colleagues saying there is no ceiling on how far she could go.

May will enter awards season as one of the leading candidates for AVN’s Best New Starlet trophy.

“Her marketability is her best trait,” Maxwell says. “She has a nice young body, her tits are natural, she doesn’t have any noticeable tatts and her face is beautiful.

“A lot of girls are a little awkward when they come into the industry and have to grow into their sexuality. Rissa’s sexuality is already there. She just has to grow into her status.”

May intends to do exactly that—but at her own pace. She’s being more selective with her bookings and is making sure to devote plenty of personal time for herself to keep her mental health in check.

One of May’s favorite hobbies is watching reality TV at the model house while lounging in her favorite hoodie. It’s a sleepover vibe that Woods calls bed-rotting.

“Guys are probably jerking off to her at the same time she’s laying in bed with me eating Hot Cheetos,” says Woods, who marvels at how far May has come.

In 2023, May was just a small-town girl in a big city, relishing her new job and her first taste of the fast life. Now she’s operating like a responsible adult and thinking strategically about her career.

“A year ago,” Woods says, “Rissa was like, ‘I’m not trying to become a big name or an icon. I’m just doing this to make money and have some fun.

“But now she realizes she’s more than just a porn star. She’s a businesswoman who is saving her money and thinking about her future. She remembers where she came from. She wants to be better than that.

“And she knows she can.”