Max Konnor

Konnor was raised in Albany, Georgia. He has one older sister and has described his parents as "extremely religious", "strict", and "very protective", also describing his upbringing as "very sheltered". As a child, he was diagnosed with ADHD. He was ordained as a minister at age 14 and became a pastor at his church at age 16. After graduating from high school, he moved to New York City to attend the American Musical and Dramatic Academy and pursue a career in musical theater. While there, he realized he was gay and came out to his parents in an email.^[2] Until 2017, he worked primarily as a stage and television actor and appeared in the Comedy Central series Broad City, the Fox series Gotham, the Netflix series Master of None, and the CBS series Madam Secretary.^[1][3]

Konnor first began his career as a gay pornographic film actor in 2009 as Isaiah Foxx, appearing in several Lucas Entertainment films before appearing in films for other gay pornographic studios, including Treasure Island Media and Flava Works, until 2012.^[3] He began working in gay pornography again after the pilot of an ABC television series titled Salamander, which he starred in, was not picked up in October 2017.^[1] He began as a webcam model on CAM4 before starting an account on the subscription service OnlyFans and launching a pornographic Twitter account.^[4] He soon made his studio debut with the gay pornographic studio Black Rayne Productions as Max Konnor.^[5] He initially mostly appeared in films for "Black studios" alongside other Black and brown actors before performing in films for mainstream gay pornographic studios.^[6] In June 2018, he starred in a Lucas Entertainment film initially titled Black Cocks Matter, the title of which received backlash online for its play on the name of the Black Lives Matter movement and which Konnor said he had not been aware of before its release; it was soon changed to Black Cocks Rock.^[7] In January 2019, Konnor won the award for Best Duo alongside Armond Rizzo at the GayVN Awards, making them the first actors of color to both win the award, and was named gay pornographic studio Noir Male's inaugural Noir Male of the Month. At the 2019 Grabby Awards, he won the award for Best Cock.^[8] He launched the talent management agency Haus of Konnor in December 2019, which focused on representing and managing pornographic actors of color. Also in 2019, he became the most-followed Black gay pornographic actor on Twitter and the first to have more than 300,000 followers, as well as one of the most subscribed-to gay pornographic actors on subscription service JustForFans.^[6][9]

In March 2020, Konnor started working as a webcam model for CAM4 again, where he became the website's first male ambassador and performed in monthly solo shows.^[4] During the COVID-19 pandemic, he was contracted to do two-hour-long webcam shows.^[10] Also in 2020, he signed an exclusive contract with gay pornographic studios Falcon Entertainment and Naked Sword and won the Grabby Award for Hottest Top.^[11] In 2021, he won the XBIZ Award for Gay Performer of the Year and was one of the subjects of the documentary film Being Black in Porn, which was directed by fellow gay pornographic film actor DeAngelo Jackson.^[12][13] He also made his directorial debut in August 2021, directing the Noir Male film Start of the Summer, for which he was nominated for a Grabby Award.^[14] He also won the Grabby Awards for Hottest Cock and Best Three-Way, winning the latter for Tales from the Locker Room 2 alongside Beau Butler and Colton Reece, and the GayVN Award for Performer of the Year in 2022.^[15][16] In February 2023, Falcon Studios and Naked Sword released The Best of Max Konnor Bareback, a compilation DVD of six scenes starring Konnor.^[17] Starting in April 2023, Konnor starred as Michael in Waiting in the Wings: The Musical, an adaptation of the 2015 film of the same name about a casting mix-up between a stripper and a musical theater performer, during its off-Broadway run at the Theatre at St. Clement's.^[18][19] As of 2023^[update], Konnor is a main cast member on the OutTV reality television series X-Rated: NYC, which premiered in September 2023.^[20][21]

Konnor identifies as demisexual and has stated that he only has sex on camera.^[20] He has also spoken against the term "BBC" and the fetishization of Black men in pornography.^[22] James Franklin of DNA called Konnor "the sweetest top in porn" in 2019, while Joshua S. Mackey of Into called Konnor one of "the biggest names in porn" in 2023.^[1][5] Frank J. Avella of Edge wrote that Konnor was a "porn superstar" in 2023.^[19] For Out, Mikelle Street called him a "multi award-winning studio performer with a robust presence across fan site platforms like JustForFans and OnlyFans".^[4]