Buxom and shapely 5'3" brunette knockout RayVeness was born Karen M.
Swaim on June 19, 1972 in Jamestown, North Carolina. Of German
and Irish descent, and raised in the Quaker faith, she got married to
her first husband a year prior to leaving high school. RayVeness worked
at various fast food restaurants as well as a babysitter and an Avon
saleswoman prior to starting out in the adult film industry at age 18
in 1990 (in fact, she did her first sex scene on her 18th
birthday for the company Homegrown Video). Her porn pseudonym is of
Indian origin and means "of the spirit". In 2000 RayVeness took a
hiatus from hardcore movies and attempted a more mainstream career with
only moderate success. She was nominated for a XRCO Award for MILF of
the Year in 2006. Moreover, she took a second hiatus from June,
2006 to August, 2007 to have a child via in vitro fertilization. In
July, 2009 RayVeness became the first contract star for the all-girl
company Girlfriends Films and, later, announced her retirement from the
adult film industry on her Twitter account in February, 2011. She was
inducted into the XRCO Hall of Fame that same year. RayVeness came out
of retirement again in July, 2012. The mother of a son, she sings and
writes music in her spare time.
