The AVN Awards are film awards sponsored and presented by the American adult video industry trade magazine AVN to recognize achievement in various aspects of the creation and marketing of American pornographic films. They are often called the "Oscars of porn".
Treasure Island Media is an independent U.S. gay pornographic studio founded in 1998 by Paul Morris that primarily produces bareback films. It was the first commercial producer to specialize in bareback films as part of the emerging 1990s underground interest in the pre-condom era of gay porn that was concerned with the freedom of the sexual experience. The studio is named after Morris's favorite childhood book, Treasure Island. In addition to the original San Francisco office, TIM has production offices in New York, London and Mexico City.
Thomas Joseph Strada, better known by his stage name Tommy Gunn, is an American pornographic actor and director. He has made several mainstream appearances, including an episode of Entourage and music videos for Buckcherry and Rilo Kiley. In 2016, Gunn was inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame.
Active Duty is the umbrella name for the American, originally North Carolina–based independent gay pornographic film studios founded by Dennis Ashe specializing in the production of pornographic movies. It features the portrayals of military men who are gay, straight, and bisexual, engaging in solo or gay sexual action. Dink Flamingo was the pseudonym of the producer-director of the films. Since Active Duty was acquired by Montreal-based Gamma Entertainment in 2014, Dink Flamingo is a trademark that no longer refers to a person.
Manuel Jeannin, known professionally as Manuel Ferrara, is a French-American adult entertainer and director. One of the leading actors in the porn industry, Ferrara has won over 64 adult industry awards including six AVN Awards as Male Performer of the Year—the record for the accolade, and was inducted into the AVN and XRCO Halls of Fame.
Michael Brandon is an American pornographic actor and director who specializes in gay pornography. He has had his own subdivision at Raging Stallion called "Monster Bang" and has previously participated in some charitable efforts.
J. D. Slater is an American gay pornography actor, director, and music composer from San Francisco who co-founded Raging Stallion Studios (RSS) with Chris Ward in 1999.
Lucas Entertainment is an independent New York-based gay pornographic studio started by porn star Michael Lucas, funded by his ex-husband Richard Winger. It is one of the largest such studios in the world. The studio is known for lavish, big-budget films, and it contends that its 2006 film Michael Lucas' La Dolce Vita is the most expensive gay porn ever made. The film won 14 GayVN awards in 2007, the current record.
Corbin Fisher is an American independent film studio with a focus on gay pornography, based in Las Vegas, Nevada. The studio maintains a website at CorbinFisher.com; other web properties of the company include AmateurCollegeMen.com, AmateurCollegeSex.com, CFSelect.com, CorbinFisherLive.com, CorbinsCoeds.com, and ShopCorbinFisher.com. The founder of Corbin Fisher, who goes by the same name as an alias, started filming men and making videos during his spare time, and started the website CorbinFisher.com in 2004. The company released its first full-length DVD in September 2008. Since 2009, the company has collaborated with the European studio BelAmi on movie production and cross-distribution.
Kagney Necessary was an American pornographic film actress and singer. After becoming an exotic dancer, she entered the pornography industry in 2008.
Angela Gabrielle White is an Australian pornographic film actress and director. She has been inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame and the XRCO Hall of Fame, and in 2020 became AVN's first three-time Female Performer of the Year winner.
Philipp Tanzer is a German men's rights activist and former adult entertainer in gay films, in which he performed under the stage name Logan McCree.
Cybersocket, Inc. is an American multimedia publishing company based in West Hollywood, California. It was founded in 1997 by Morgan Sommer and Tim Lutz.
Adam Cuculich, known by the stage names Ryan Driller and Jeremy Bilding, is an American pornographic actor who has appeared in both straight and gay pornography. In 2016, he received the XBIZ Award for Male Performer of the Year. Men's Health has described him as "one of the biggest names in the industry".
The GayVN Award for Best Actor is an award presented annually by AVN Media Network at the GayVN Awards, given to a gay porn actor for his performance in a leading role in a film released that year.
Justin Heath Smith, known professionally as Austin Wolf, is an American former gay pornographic film actor. Throughout his career, he has won six GayVN Awards, two Pornhub Awards, two Grabby Awards, and two Str8UpGayPorn Awards.
Max Konnor is an American gay pornographic film actor and webcam model. After starting his pornographic career under the name Isaiah Foxx in 2009, he left the industry in 2012 to pursue a career in stage and television acting. In 2017, he became a webcam model on CAM4 and started pornographic accounts on OnlyFans and Twitter. He soon started performing in studio-made pornographic films and later became the most-followed Black gay pornographic actor on Twitter and CAM4's first male ambassador.
Bill Gray, known professionally as Billy Santoro, is an American gay pornographic actor. He first began performing in gay pornographic films in 2013 as an exclusive model for Men.com, and appeared in Lucas Entertainment's first-ever bareback film alongside his then-boyfriend Seth Santoro later that year. He became a popular performer in the mid-2010s and appeared in over 200 gay pornographic films by 2017. He later became known for his controversies, including his tweets advocating for the shooting of Black people during the George Floyd protests in 2020.
