Qingdao, in the Shandong province in China on the Yellow Sea, across from the Korean peninsula, is one of the country’s most picturesque cities, thanks to the eclectic architecture that reveals its past as one of Germany’s main Asian colonies. The Germans also left behind the knowledge and tradition of the art of brewing, resulting in a world-class beer named after the city’s alternate spelling, Tsingtao. That malt-forward beer with a notable, finger-thick head is Qingadao’s most famous export.
That is, until now.
“See? It’s beautiful,” Nicole Doshi, the brand-new 2023 XBIZ Best New Performer, tells us at a super-trendy West Hollywood coffee house co-owned by tech guru Jack Dorsey and frequented by the likes of Chloe Cherry and countless screenwriters.
Thousands of miles from the city she grew up in, Doshi has pulled out her phone to show us pictures of Qingdao, named after the Chinese characters for “sky-blue island.” She has arrived for brunch, and the customary Best New Performer interview, wearing a form-fitting couture black dress that absolutely belongs in the Hollywood-trendy coffee house, as does Doshi herself.
“Qingdao is an ocean town. We have a lot of seafood. It’s very pretty. See that?” She points at a large, European-style cathedral sticking out of the skyline in the phone picture. “That’s the church the Germans left over, along with all those other buildings.”
Nowadays, when the Los Angeles-based Doshi craves the taste of a cold Tsingtao, she heads to Rowland Heights or Irvine in Orange County.
“Irvine is a really nice area!” she enthuses about the affluent Southern California suburb, whose amenities evoke the American Dream and dazzle many recent immigrants.
How, you may ask, did a poised, incredibly charming girl from Qingdao end up as the top new porn starlet after a quick, steep rise?
“I was just in school in China. And then my parents sent me to the U.S., nine years ago, to go to college to study business. And I ended up in…”
Here she pauses dramatically, assuming a bemused and slightly shocked expression.
“…Nebraska.”
Doshi is clearly far less impressed by the vast prairie state — which recently officially changed its motto to “Honestly, it’s not for everyone” — than by the aspirational environs of Irvine.
“The school charges a lot of money for international students,” she explains, adding that the academic bar was not terribly high, which was lucky since she had spent her youth cutting class and frequenting karaoke parlors with a fast-lane crowd. “But my parents were okay with it because they thought I was going to come out with like, a good degree and go back to China.”
Things didn’t exactly turn out that way.
“When I got to Nebraska,” she says, “the first thing I noticed when I walked out of the airport was: there’s no cars, nobody. It’s really quiet. And I’m like, ‘Am I in the right place?’ In China, we have big populations. We see people everywhere. New York is much more like what I’m used to.”
Doshi lasted about a month in Nebraska, took the money she had been sent to go to school, and bought herself the proverbial one-way ticket to New York. Upon arrival, she took a taxi from the airport directly to Manhattan’s Chinatown.
“I felt at home because I saw a lot of Chinese people walking around and I could speak Chinese to them. Right away, I found a room to live in with a big Chinese family.”
At that point, Doshi had no plan beyond “getting the hell out of Nebraska.” But re-centered amid the crowds of New York and the homey comforts of Chinatown, she quickly started hustling. Eschewing her parents’ more traditional plan for learning about business, she nevertheless set out to do just that, in a much more practical fashion.
Almost immediately after securing a series of gigs through sheer chutzpah, Doshi noticed that her looks and her disarming, lights-up-a-room personality made her stand out among the other big city strivers. She also discovered one of the oldest rules of business: sex sells.
“I am a sexual person — but I wasn’t really, on the outside,” she says. “The way I grew up in China, we are very strict. My parents would not allow me to wear anything like this.” She indicates the head-turning cleavage she’s displaying in the Hollywood morning. “It had to be covered up.”
What about since her meteoric success?
She smiles. “They’re more open-minded.”
It was during her time in New York — her unofficial business school — that Doshi discovered, she says, the power of her sexuality.
“I definitely got the feeling that, ‘Oh, okay, I’m in control.’”
Wasn’t that obvious from just looking at a mirror?
“Oh, I’m just lucky,” she laughs, easily and without conceit.
Unlike other industry hopefuls who do their own research and find their way into an agency, Doshi was scouted by Vixen Media Group from her social media in 2021. A consummate 21st-century networker, Doshi continues to interact with fans and industry folk using Twitter as her main forum.
“I would film little videos here and there, sexy girl stuff, coming up with ideas, content, everything. Then someone from Vixen messaged me on Twitter and asked me if I wanted to shoot for their company. I guess they like new faces, because I wasn’t in the porn industry at all at the time. So I was like, ‘Yeah, why not? I could try this.’”
Doshi shot for several Vixen sites before a photographer on set recommended Motley Models, her first agency. Once she relocated to Los Angeles in April 2022, to do porn full-time, she began her meteoric rise to Best New Performer.
“I still prefer New York,” she says. “I like the crowd. I like craziness. The reason I moved to LA is because it’s easier for me to get bookings here, it’s just easier instead of flying back and forth. But I do love the weather here, of course!”
Two things really stand out about Doshi. There’s a radiance and sunniness that emanates from her face when she listens, an open quality that appears effortless. There is also a clear sense that she is fully engaged with her interlocutor, whoever they may be, as evidenced by how easily she turns the conversation into a two-way affair. She has mastered the ancient art of being both engaging and engaged, a rare quality in an era of self-obsessed would-be influencers, but a time-tested commodity among truly effective sex workers.
Doshi, who sees herself as a purveyor of “good sexual energy,” is also an endlessly upbeat source of viable business ideas. During our interview, she suggests two or three side gigs her interviewer might pursue, and makes it sound completely organic to the interaction.
She is also generous with her praise of her top-level colleagues, like Kira Noir and Violet Myers, or raving about Maitland Ward after her experiences on a Deeper set as an extra for “Drift.”
“Me and Maya Woulfe played two of her fans so we were acting crazy, pulling her hair, grabbing her jacket. And she is so nice. She’s so, so focused on her character. There’s a scene where she’s just smoking and… oh my God, she’s such a great actress!”
Experiences such as her extra work on “Drift” have prompted Doshi to want to pursue more acting in features.
“When I first started the industry, I felt like, ‘I’ve just come here to fuck — why do you want me to act?’” she laughs. “But recently I shot with Tommy Pistol for Ricky Greenwood and there was a scene where I had to play this girl that was crying, and I managed to make myself cry. And Ricky was so happy I could do that.”
She also credits twice-crowned 2023 Male Performer of the Year Seth Gamble with helping her hone her acting chops.
“He is so awesome,” Doshi gushes. “And he likes teaching me how to do better scenes. I’ve learned a lot of things from him.”
Her acting career may benefit from her budding association with Model Media’s rising Delphine Films imprint, and its exclusive contract director Bloomer Yang, with whom she has become close.
“I love Delphine!” Doshi says. “They’re from Taiwan. They make very high-quality scenes, top-level. Bloomer is a super-nice guy, and I love his comedy — he’s a great stand-up comedian. He’s so nice on set, also; he treats everyone so nice. I love shooting with him. He lets me have a lot of input and trusts his actors, asking, ‘What do you think about this character?’ I always ask him, ‘Where do you get your ideas?’ and he says, ‘Just my life experience.’ Oh God, he must have been through a lot!” She laughs.
Doshi just shot Delphine’s first-ever DP scene.
“I had so much fun,” she shares. “It’s kind of like a music video — there’s dancing and teasing. I just love that.”
Model Media also gave Doshi the opportunity to work with two performers from Taiwan, whom the company has started shooting alongside U.S.-based talent.
“I was speaking Chinese in the scene, which is so much fun for me. I’ve never done that!” she enthuses.
In Doshi’s native China, porn production is strictly taboo, prosecuted by the government and only surfacing in underground, amateur productions. However, the brunette stunner does not expect pirated scenes of her stateside work to make her popularity soar back home.
“Chinese people,” she smirks, “they like to see Barbie doll, white, blonde. They like to see people that they don’t usually see daily. They will love to see Savannah Bond, Kenzie Anne. Chinese people love — ‘bombshell!’ I don’t know if I would be a big deal there,” she ponders, before quickly correcting herself with a characteristically sanguine “Maybe!”
What is certain is that Doshi’s popularity in international porn is at an all-time high, as her recent Best New Performer win at the XBIZ Awards confirms. Her shooting schedule is packed for the foreseeable future, with the kind of enviable gigs other models salivate over—and she is doing it all with a smile.
Besides more feature work, Doshi wants to plan a showcase for the second half of this year, as her next career echelon. She is just getting started, and readily cites, as role models, top-of-the-top figures like Angela White and Vicki Chase.
“I’m really getting greedy now,” she admits, her jokiness belying palpable ambition. “Now I really want to win Female Performer of the Year.”
