Years active: 1987 - 2003 (started around 36 years old; 16 years in the business)
About Ona Zee
Classic actress Ona Zee was born on the 3rd of March 1954 in Los Angeles, California. Early on, she worked as a model with the Wilhelmina modeling agency, including appearances in Cosmopolitan. She made her porn debut in 1987 when she was 36 years old, an age when many female porn stars are getting ready to retire from the industry. Regarding her decision to enter the adult film industry, Zee said, "I am an exhibitionist, so to take it to the nth degree was obviously where I was going. It took me a little longer to get there than some women but I knew I could be one of the best actress in adult films, if not the best."
Career Choices & Niches
Since her debut, Zee has gone on to perform in about 300 movies, often playing the role of horny cougar. Not one to settle for acting alone, Zee also served as the director, writer, and producer for 67 films she appeared in. She also opened her own production company, Ona Zee Pictures. Over the years, Zee performed in a variety of niches, including anal, double penetration, interracial, lesbian content, and solo masturbation scenes. She once described herself as "very bisexual" and preferred to do girl/girl scenes since she didn't get to have sex with many women in her private life.
Late in her career, she identified as pansexual and expressed a fetish for performing with transsexuals, which she did in at least one film and even let midget porn star, Napoleon, fuck her just to see what it would be like. She also created a line of videos that catered to bondage, discipline and the fetish crowd working in films centering on her dominating both men and women. Examples of her bondage work include Bondage Club parts 1-5 (London Video/Lyndon Distributors), Bondage Memories 3 (B & D Pleasures), and Bondage Boot Camp (Tanric). She has also appeared often with men under the age of 30, including performing oral sex with men that typically performed in gay/homosexual movies.
Studios & Notable Films
Zee often performed in scenes for some of the best production companies in the industry at the time, such as CDI Home Video, Western Visuals, Caballero Home Video, Plum Productions, and many more. Notable films for Zee include A&B Gang Bang 13: Cumming Out Party 1 (A&B), Best of Double Penetration (Vidco Entertainment), Cheating American Style (Western Visuals), the Ona Zee Presents series Strippers Inc. parts 1-5, a lesbian performance in Starship Intercourse (Dreamland Entertainment), and a solo performance in Going Down Slow (VCA). Ona also fucked Penthouse Pet turned pornstar, Racquel Darrian, in one of her first features, despite being almost 20 years her senior.
Mainstream Appearances
Late in her career, she appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, along with porn actress Nina Hartley, to discuss the porn business. Both she and Hartley defended the industry, despite a very hostile mostly female audience. Both stood firm on their views, advocating free choice and freedom of speech. In 1990 she founded Ona Zee Productions with Frank Zee.
Life After Porn
As of August 2007 she was selling real estate in Los Angeles for Coldwell Banker under the name Ona Dawes. She also manufactures and sells jewelry from her website. The entrepreneurial spirit will not die out with this dynamo at the helm.
Freeones.com ranked her as the 14th greatest MILF pornstar ever
Porn Awards
1989 AVN Award - Best Actress (film) - Portrait of an Affair
1992 AVN Award - Best Actress (video) - Starlet
1993 AVN Award - Best Supporting Actress (film) - Secret Garden 1 and 2
2000 Hot d'Or - Hot d'Or d'Honneur
AVN Hall of Fame
