Raven Richards was born on February 27, 1954, in Ohio. She is half Guatemalan and Irish. After graduating from college, she went to work as a law clerk before marrying in the mid-70s. She was married for 8 years and had two children. After her divorce, she begin stripping to make earn a living and it was through dancing that she made contracts with pornstars who helped her sign with an agency and relocate to California to start a porn career.

She entered the adult entertainment industry in late 1988 at age 34, much later than many peers, leveraging her exotic dancing experience. Her debut coincided with the industry’s shift from the Golden Age of Porn to the video era, allowing her to work with major studios. She was told to avoid the name Raven Richard since there was alr...