One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
Asian Representation at the GayVN Awards 2024-2026
The 2026 GayVN Awards nominee list was released last week, with the ceremony taking place on January 22, 2026 in Las Vegas. With twenty categories and up to fifteen nominations per category, the awards represent over two hundred possible acknowledgements for studios, directors, and performers. Alongside the Grabbys, the GayVN Awards is the highest profile acknowledgement that the gay adult entertainment industry has, even if it pales in comparison to the scale and scope of its sister awards for heterosexual pornography, the AVN Awards (with eighty-seven categories).
I hesitate to divine the state of the gay adult entertainment industry from nominations for a single award show, but some shifts specific to Asian1 performers are worth highlighting. Before I begin, I should disclaim that drawing conclusions from award show nominations is like reading tea leaves for the weather. There is no particular rhyme or reason for who receives a nomination beyond which scenes studios choose to submit for consideration and who the awards team shortlists from those submissions. As for who is eventually crowned the winner, that deliberation is beyond my pay grade as a performer, though folks have made astute observations over the years that the studios who sponsor the event usually receive a corresponding amount of exposure.
I am writing from the perspective of a performer with some interest in observing trends and patterns. I understand I am working with a small sample size, so take the conclusions I draw with a pinch of salt. I will like to remind us that numbers are ultimately quantitative, and a qualitative analysis is beyond the scope of this post. I hope this quick and brief summation will support other nuanced scholarship in the future.
I have performed in several studio scenes over the years, and I am invested in what I must honestly name as the paucity of Asian representation in the adult entertainment industry in North America and Europe. Even when we do gain representation, we are often relegated into non-normative categories - where race is either seen as a genre in itself, or race is coupled with other more transgressive kinky proclivities. I argue elsewhere that this has a corresponding global impact on the style of pornography, objectification of gay sexuality, and shapes our perceptions of beauty and desire, submission and domination. You can read my previous Substack posts for further elaboration.
2026 GayVN Awards Nominations
After that extensive throat-clearing, we turn to the nominations. There are nine mentions of Asian performers across four of the twenty available categories: Best Fetish Scene, Best Oral Sex Scene, Best Director and Best Fourgy Scene.
Cody Seiya and I are nominated for our rope bondage scene with Himeros.tv in Best Fetish Scene. In the same category, Japanese performer Hiroya’s Kinbaku in Suits scene with Southeast Asian rigger Master Sim and Taiwan-based performer Daniel Zhang is also nominated.
Another scene from Hiroya’s personal website, Hiroya XXX, is also nominated for Best Fourgy Scene, featuring performers Hiroya and Daniel alongside two other performers Rio and Tezro. Hiroya’s site, which enters the GayVN Awards nomination list for the first time this year, receives a third mention in the Best Oral Sex Scene category, featuring Daiki and Hiroya. Himeros.tv has another nomination in this category featuring Filipino-American performer Jkab Ethan Dale and the iconic Max Konnor. The veteran Kink Men Vietnamese-American performer and director Van Darkholme also receives two nominations in Best Oral Sex Scene category for two scenes where he is a supporting dominant.
Significantly, Van Darkholme received a nomination in the Best Director category for the first time since he returned to directing for Kink Men in 2024.
Finally, even though the performers are not explicitly mentioned by name in the nomination, Himeros.tv‘s The Manchineel King, a gay pornography parody of The White Lotus, receives a nomination in the Best Feature category. This series features a cast who delivered a strong ensemble performance, including Jkab Ethan Dale and Sammy Sinsss.2
A Consolidation of Control
It is worth noting that three of these nine nominations come from Hiroya XXX, which is managed and run by the same team behind PeterFever, a studio that has long been a significant presence in producing content foregrounding Asian performers. While the emergence of Hiroya XXX as a new site in the nomination list might suggest an expansion of Asian-focused production, it actually represents a diversification of their portfolio within a single entity. Alongside Hiroya’s site, they also manage the sites for performers like Damian Dragon and Axel Abysse.
PeterFever has been an important player in creating visibility for Asian performers in an industry where such representation has been historically limited, and their continued investment in production is noteworthy. At the same time, this consolidation reveals that Asian representation in GayVN nominations remains concentrated within a relatively limited production ecosystem, making the industry’s commitment to Asian performers dependent on the submission strategies and priorities of a single player.
It is also telling that PeterFever’s only nomination that was accepted by the GayVN Awards in 2026 went to Colt Spence, a non-Asian performer. This raises questions less about the studio’s nomination strategy and more about what the awards’ selection process considers worthy of recognition. Are scenes featuring Asian performers being submitted but not shortlisted? Or does the nomination process favor certain performers and scene types over others?
The situation becomes even more precarious when we consider that Himeros.tv, one of the few studios consistently providing opportunities for Asian performers, is winding down production. As I mentioned in a previous Substack post, founder David Jacques (aka Davey Wavey) is leaving pornography for the hospitality industry. Himeros.tv has been distinctive in prioritizing diversity and authenticity as core values in its casting and production ethos. With its closure, the industry is losing one of the only studios that operated with this commitment to representation. The reliance on a shrinking number of outlets spells even more limitation for Asian performers in an industry already struggling with representation. Provided, of course, that the industry is not first taken over by the onslaught of AI-generated slop. Perhaps this doubling down on known knowns is symptomatic of an industry on a defense facing the threat of imminent obsolescence.
The Mirage of 2024
These numbers from 2026 tell only part of the story. To understand what is actually happening, we need to look at the past three years collectively.3 2024 was the peak of Asian representation at the GayVN Awards. At that time there was a real promise of changing tides, where we thought it was part of a larger societal shift with the increased attention given to Asian talent in the entertainment industry and Hollywood, and Michelle Yeoh winning the Oscar for Everything Everywhere All At Once in 2023.
That year had twelve nominations for Asian performers, a third more than the nine nominations in both 2025 and 2026, with Cody Seiya receiving an unprecedented six nominations, including in the category of Performer of the Year, and Jason Luna nominated in the Best Newcomer category. Jkab Ethan Dale became the first Asian performer to receive a GayVN award, winning in the Best Featurette category for his scene with Dante Colle. 2024 was also the first year I was nominated in the Best Fetish Scene category for a group scene with PeterFever. In retrospect, perhaps that year was merely an anomaly, instead of the paradigm shift that we imagined it to be.
The Gradual Decline of 2025
By 2025, the number of nominations featuring Asian performers dropped back to nine. Jkab Ethan Dale had two nominations in the Best Supporting Actor – Featurette and Best Three-Way Sex Scene categories. Cody Seiya was nominated in the Best Supporting Actor and Best Duo Sex Scene categories. Two nominations were for Jason Luna, also in the Best Three-Way Sex Scene category, and a PeterFever group scene in Best Group Sex Scene featuring David Ace, Jack Hunter, Jessie Lee, and Zario Travezz. Veteran performer Van Darkholme received a whopping three nominations in the same category of Best Oral Scene for being a supporting dominant in three Kink Men scenes.
Even though the number of nominations dropped from 2024, the 2025 nominations still featured individual performer nominations like Cody Seiya for Best Supporting Actor, which speaks to a body of work accumulated over the year beyond any one studio. The studios that nominated Asian performers were also varied and diverse, including Kink Men, Icon Male, Himeros.tv, Next Door Studios, Cocky Boys, Cutler’s Den and PeterFever. Jkab Ethan Dale was also a co-host for the ceremony in 2025. Jkab, along with Ryan Chun from Helix Studios performing Trophy Boy duties, added visibility to Asian performers as part of the ceremony proceedings.
The Receding Ebb of 2026
Even though 2025 and 2026 nominations are consistent in terms of numbers, upon closer inspection, the 2026 nominations reveal a receding of support of Asian performers. Bigger production studios that had previously nominated scenes featuring Asian performers in 2024 and 2025, such as Cocky Boys and ASGMax, either did not submit scenes with Asian performers for consideration or those submissions were not shortlisted for by the award organization. Instead, Asian representation became concentrated entirely within smaller niche and specialty stakeholders like Himeros.tv and the PeterFever family of sites. This shift suggests that while Asian performers may have achieved some increase in visibility for 2024 and 2025, that progress has not translated into sustained integration within the industry’s more established production studios.
Why This Matters?
The pattern that emerges across these three years reveals a worrying trend. While the absolute number of nominations featuring Asian performers has remained relatively stable at nine for both 2025 and 2026, the composition of those nominations tells a different story. Asian performers are being funnelled into Asian-focused niche content rather than integrated into the broader landscape of industry recognition that was promised in 2024. What appears as numerical consistency masks a process of sustained segregation and regression.
This matters because award nominations are not merely symbolic gestures. They signal which work studios consider their best, and they have material consequences for performer careers. GayVN nominations influence casting decisions, shape perceptions of performer marketability, and indicate where studios are willing to invest production resources and marketing capital. When Asian performers receive recognition primarily through an Asian-focused studio rather than through the same mainstream channels that elevate other performers, it creates a separate and unequal system of valuation and compensation, which ultimately limits our ability to negotiate for better working terms and conditions.
The awards landscape reflects how the industry sees us. Right now, that vision appears to be narrowing rather than expanding. The question is whether Asian performers will continue to be relegated to specialty categories as in the past, or whether the brief promise of 2024 can be fulfilled.
For now, the evidence suggests we are moving one step forward, and two steps back.
Afterthoughts
I reflected on this the morning after I posted this in conversation with my husband and comments received, and some other points worth noting:
Perhaps the abdication moves in both directions, suggesting that we no longer want to take part in a game built around securing a seat at a table that has never felt welcoming, where we are inevitably treated as interlopers. Perhaps it is simply a sign of our exhaustion with the system of representation.
A more comprehensive study on racial representation will need to look not only at a longer timeline than the three years of nominations considered here, but also at patterns across Black and brown studios and performers.
Appendix: List of Nominations with Asian Performers 2024-26
2026 GayVN Awards Nominations (9 total)
Zed Sheng & Cody Seiya — Best Fetish Scene — Mission Unbound (Himeros.tv)
Daniel Zhang & Hiroya with Master Sim — Best Fetish Scene — Kinbaku In Suits (Hiroya XXX)
Daniel Zhang, Hiroya, Rio & Tezro — Best Fourgy Scene — Daniel Gets Seeded (Hiroya XXX)
Daiki & Hiroya — Best Oral Sex Scene — Cum With Daiki (Hiroya XXX)
Jkab Ethan Dale & Max Konnor — Best Oral Sex Scene — The Manchineel King (Himeros.tv)
Best Feature — The Manchineel King (Himeros.tv; production with Jkab Ethan Dale & Sammy Sinsss)
Van Darkholme with Vander Pulaski, Buck Richards — Best Oral Sex Scene — Edging a Giant Cock (Kink Men)
Van Darkholme with Miles Fallon, Evan Jordie — Best Oral Sex Scene — A Soldier Endures (Kink Men)
Van Darkholme — Best Director (Kink Men)
2025 GayVN Awards Nominations (9 total)
Jkab Ethan Dale — Best Supporting Actor - Featurette — Chef’s Kiss (Icon Male)
Jkab Ethan Dale, Vander Pulaski & Morgxn Thicke — Best Three-Way Sex Scene — Hairy Enough (Himeros.tv)
Cody Seiya — Best Supporting Actor — Breaking Frontiers (Next Door Studios/ASGMax)
Cody Seiya & Alex Kof — Best Duo Sex Scene — Summer Cruising (CockyBoys)
Jason Luna, Ian Sterling & Cutler X — Best Three-Way Sex Scene — Big Things Come in Small Packages (Cutler’s Den)
David Ace, Jack Hunter, Jessie Lee & Zario Travezz — Best Group Sex Scene — Zombie Cum Suckers: No Place Like Hole (PeterFever)
Van Darkholme with Carter Collins & Johnny Donovan — Best Oral Sex Scene — Jail Break (Kink Men)
Van Darkholme with Brody Fox & Cliff Jensen — Best Oral Sex Scene — Over the Cliff’s Edge (Kink Men)
Van Darkholme with Vander Pulaski & Sean Xavier — Best Oral Sex Scene — X-Man On Edge (Kink Men)
2024 GayVN Awards Nominations (12 total)
Jkab Ethan Dale & Dante Colle — Best Featurette — Kinky Scenarios (Icon Male) — WON (1st Asian GayVN Award Winner)
Jkab Ethan Dale with Brogan & Caden Jackson — Best Fetish Scene — He’ll Give You What I Can’t (Watch You Cheat/AdultTime.com)
Cody Seiya — Performer of the Year
Cody Seiya — Best Supporting Actor — Jake Jaxson’s Happy Endings (CockyBoys)
Cody Seiya & Tristan Hunter — Best Duo Sex Scene — Jake Jaxson’s Happy Endings (CockyBoys)
Cody Seiya with Trevor Brooks, Lane Colten, Tristan Hunter, Greyson Myles, Shae Reynolds — Best Group Sex Scene — Jake Jaxson’s Happy Endings (CockyBoys)
Cody Seiya & Braxton Cruz — Best Three-Way Sex Scene — Third Wheel (BroNetwork)
Jason Luna — Best Newcomer
Jason Luna & Cutler X — Best Duo Sex Scene — Powerfuck (Cutler’s Den)
Zed Sheng, Nolan Knox, Ty Roderick & Jay Tee — Best Fetish Scene — Tied Up Tuesday: Dropping the Ropes (PeterFever)
Colton Reece & Joey Mills — Best Actor - Featurette — Accidental Pornstar (Men.com)
Colton Reece, Derek Kage & Drew Valentino — Best Fetish Scene — Play Date (FetishForce)
For consistency and readability, I use the term “Asian” throughout this article. In academic contexts, the more common designation is “AAPI” (Asian American and Pacific Islander), itself adapted from earlier terms such as A/PA (Asian/Pacific American) and A/PI (Asian/Pacific Islander). Here, “Asian” functions as a broad, catch-all category that includes both Asian Americans and Asians outside the United States. I recognize that this consolidation contradicts my earlier writing, where I argued for greater differentiation within the catch-all category of “Asian-ness” circulating in North America; consider this a provisional gesture and a first step toward a more nuanced recognition.
Europe-based performer Tian Tao was technically part of a globally cast group-orgy scene nominated for Best Group Sex Scene. However, given that he was one performer among twenty-two, the nomination does not foreground an Asian performer. For that reason, I elected not to count it in this tally.
I hope to one day conduct a full historical review of the GayVN Awards and the Grabby Awards nominations. For now, limited time and financial capacity mean that I will concentrate on the past three years, which mark my entry into the industry.
I agree with your analysis. These nominations seem to represent a broader trend of marginalization, reducing us to orientalist tropes both in bed and outside. In the Western imagination, we’re just a genre.