Carli Banks

About Carli Banks

Carli Banks, born on November 16, 1985, in Iowa City, Iowa, is an American adult film actress and model. Raised in Iowa, she was a self-described farmer's daughter. After winning several local beauty pageants, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue modeling and acting, entering the adult entertainment industry in 2005 at age 20 with FM Concepts, debuting in softcore and fetish films, per IMDb and globalzonetoday.com. "I have had no intention of doing hardcore films." She later told AVN in 2009, "I just thought I could do nudie magazines and some tame fetish stuff to make money and then break into acting".

After missing her rent in LA for two months, she decided to ask for adult film work, but only for girl/girl since Banks felt doing boy/girl would be crossing a line she wasn't ready for. She appeared in over 180 films, including Fem: Staccato (2006), The Charlie-Carli Bondage Festival (2012), and titles for studios like Penthouse, Hustler, Club Jenna, Digital Playground, Girlfriends Films, and Adam & Eve, per IAFD and Boobpedia. Specializing in solo, lingerie, satin panties, and girl/girl scenes, she used aliases like Carla Banks, Carlie Banks, and Cassidy Banks, per Wikiporno. Named Penthouse Pet of the Month (July 2005) and featured on Hustler’s cover (February 2006), she also posed for High Society and Swank, per Wikiporno.

Bisexual, Banks said she enjoys men and women equally. She was known for her great chemistry with Celeste Star. Before Banks retired, she gave an interview to a Los Angeles morning show where she said she dated actress Evan Rachel Wood briefly in 2010. She told the hosts, "She got in touch with my agent and wanted to meet me cause she was a big fan. I thought that was crazy since I was just a porn chick. She had just broken up with Marilyn Manson, so she was all over the news. I met her at her house in the hills. She knew all about my movies, so I immediately thought this bitch has to be a dyke. We drank and smoked some weed. Some time during the night, she came over and kissed me and asked if I thought she was pretty. I said yes and we had sex. I did not know she was queer. I ended up staying at her place for almost two weeks. We basically had sex a lot and talked about random things. After a few months, she broke it off. I sense she was just curious about being with me since she saw my movies and her itch was scratched."

Fans (2024) praised her as “an Iowa farmer's daughter gone slutty,” noting her Fem: Staccato performances (comment: “Carli and Celeste(Star) were the 00s best couple!” user: rlez85). A 2024 X post said ”I wished she had done boy/girl much sooner". (@RetroPornFan). AVN (2006) described her as “a girl/girl legend.” The Rialto Report highlighted her “as an amazing lesbian performer who sadly only started to do boy/girl just as she left,” cementing her as a notable figure in 2000s adult entertainment.

Known for her 5’5” height, 110-pound frame, blonde hair (often dyed brown), blue eyes, and 34C-26-34 measurements (natural), she has no tattoos or piercings. "I prided myself on being natural and turned down any surgery," she later told lukeford.com in 2008. At the end of her career, she began doing boy/girl scenes with her then-boyfriend for her own website. In 2012, at the age of 27, she shocked many by retiring and moving back to Iowa. As of August 15, 2025, Banks, now 39, lives privately with no active social media presence, her work preserved in 2000s adult film archives.