Tomorrow night is the 2022 AVN Awards. Who do you think will win?

January 21, 2022
KELLI ROBERTS

Tomorrow night is the big night – the 2022 AVN Awards. This year’s big event is hosted by porn star Mia Malkova and Webcam starlet Mighty Emelia.

The first AVN awards show took place in 1984. That year Rachel Ashley took home the award for Best New Starlet, while Sharon Mitchell won the award for Best Actress.

Rachel Ashley would go on to star in more than 100 adult movies during the 12 years of her career in the adult industry. While Sharon Mitchell, who began her career in 1975, would continue to make appearances in adult films well into the new millennium. She would also go on to found the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation (AIM), which tested over 1,000 adult film performers per month before its closure in 2011.

There wasn’t a Female Performer of the Year category that year — that wouldn’t be introduced until 1993, where Ashlyn Gere would take home the big prize.

The big movie of the year was called Scoundrels, and it was put out by a company called Command Video. It would go on to be named one of the 500 greatest adult films of all time in 2005 by AVN, and in 2015 XRCO would call it one of the greatest adult films of all time.

Much has changed over the years. In 1984, there were a total of 11 award categories. Last year there were 84 video-related categories, not including the six fan-voted categories.

Over the years, there have been a total of 39 winners of the coveted Best New Starlet award.

1984 Rachel Ashley
1985 Ginger Lynn
1986 Angel
1987 Barbara Dare
1988 Samantha Strong
1989 Aja
1990 Victoria Paris
1990 Tori Welles
1991 Jennifer Stewart
1992 Savannah
1993 Alex Jordan
1994 Shayla LaVeaux
1995 Kylie Ireland
1996 Jenna Jameson
1997 Missy
1998 Johnni Black
1999 Alisha Klass
2000 Bridgette Kerkove
2001 Tera Patrick
2002 Violet Blue
2003 Jenna Haze
2004 Stormy Daniels
2005 Cytherea
2006 McKenzie Lee
2007 Naomi Russell
2008 Bree Olson
2009 Stoya
2010 Kagney Linn Karter
2011 Gracie Glam
2012 Brooklyn Lee
2013 Remy LaCroix
2014 Mia Malkova
2015 Carter Cruise
2016 Abella Danger
2017 Holly Hendrix
2018 Jill Kassidy
2019 Ivy Wolfe
2020 Gianna Dior
2021 Scarlit Scandal

The first male to win an award was Richard Pacheco. He was 1984’s AVN’s Best Actor for his work in the movie Irresistible.

AVN introduced the Hall of Fame in 1985. The first inductees were Gerard Damiano, Marilyn Chambers, and Harry Reems. They were announced in the April 1985 issue of the magazine.

It’s considered a tremendous honor to be inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame, of which over 400 performers have since been awarded that honor.

Although winning any award is great, Female Performer of the Year along with Best New Starlet is considered the best awards to win. In all, there have been a total of 29 awards given out for the Female Performer of the Year.