Vanessa Cliff - Adult Film Producer/Actress & Community Organizer

The Sanctuary

A happily slutty, kinky and pansexual woman, Vanessa Cliff works for a future where all people, regardless of their body, identity, sexuality, or labour, are healthy, safe, free and loved.

Although Vanessa’s career in sex work began as a for-hire porn actress, these days she’s the one calling the shots - or, more accurately, she and a team of other women and queer people who have joined together to form an unusual production company. Cliff Media operates at the intersection of two unlikely worlds: porn production and community organizing. Instead of recruiting professional adult actors, Cliff Media organizes group shoots open to all enthusiastically consenting adults who want to work together to create inclusive, loving, kinky spaces and media.

For more than a decade, Vanessa has been living outside of traditional monogamy: in polyamorous relationships with men, women, queer and trans partners, freely fucking friends and strangers, and playing in the swinger lifestyle. Unlearning shame about her own body, identity, sexuality, and sexual labour only happened through connection to others. In her work, she strives to build a community in which people recognize parts of themselves in each other, lose shame, and find their own power.

Scenes produced by Cliff Media explore themes of healthy non-monogamy, joyful kink, loving community, and empowered female and queer sexuality. They play with concepts that flip the script on dominant narratives, like an OkCupid date where the girl invites the guy and makes all the moves; a wedding where the bride and groom turn the event into a playful gangbang; or the spiritual impregnation of a trans woman where neither male ejaculate nor a female womb is required.

In October 2023, Cliff Media produced its first Women and LGBTQ Shoot Week in Portland, Oregon, joined by more than 30 queer people from around the country. Participants starred in ten orgy scenes in four days with each scene directed by a different member of Cliff Media.

Before her roles in the adult industry, Vanessa worked as a social worker, community organizer, research analyst and writer. She has a M.A. in Human Rights and Nonprofit Management, and a Ph.D. in Social Sciences. More importantly, she is the proud solo parent to an incredible kiddo with whom she loves making huge baking messes, exploring yoga poses and checking out every book at the library.

Find out more @vanessacliff_seattle