Mia Khalifa (/miːə kəˈliːfə/; Arabic: ميا خليفة [mijaː χaliːfa(h)]; born 1993[1]) is a Lebanese-American media personality and former pornographic film actress and webcam model.
Her career choice was met with controversy after the release of a video in which she performed in a threesome while wearing a hijab; the scene brought Khalifa instant popularity as well as criticism from writers and religious figures.
[4] After retiring from adult films, Khalifa pursued a new career as a social media personality, webcam model, and sports commentator.
[5] She attended Massanutten Military Academy in Woodstock, Virginia, and later graduated from the University of Texas at El Paso with a Bachelor of Arts in history.
[17] In an interview with The Washington Post, Khalifa said the controversial scene was satirical and should be taken as such, claiming that Hollywood films depicted Muslims in a far more negative light than any pornographer could.
[18] Almaza, a Lebanese brewery, ran an advertisement showing a bottle of their beer next to Khalifa's signature glasses, with the slogan: "We are both rated 18+.
[20] In January 2015, Khalifa signed a long-term contract with Bang Bros' parent company, WGCZ Holding, who also own the largest free porn site XVideos.
[21] In a July 2016 interview with The Washington Post, Khalifa stated that she had only performed in pornography for three months and had left the industry over a year before, changing to a "more normal job."
"[7] She said she continued to perform as a webcam model for Bang Bros for eleven months after she stopped shooting scenes before Complex Networks offered her to host a sports show.
[22] Carter Cruise, a former performer who became a disc jockey, criticized Khalifa for reinforcing the social stigma against sex work in distancing herself from her previous career.
[23] In August 2019, Khalifa stated that she made $12,000 working in porn by making an estimated $1,000 per scene – standard contractor compensation from production studios in the industry, according to Alec Helmy, president and publisher of adult entertainment industry news site XBIZ – and that she did not receive residuals from BangBros or from Pornhub and other free sites where BangBros uploaded the videos.
[24] In July 2020, more than 1.5 million people signed a Change.org petition campaigning for her videos to be removed from sites like Pornhub and BangBros and her Internet domains returned to her.
[5] She later transitioned into a career as a social media personality and webcam model, posting about style, food, and politics on networks such as Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter.
[5] Columnist Dan Steinberg of The Washington Post wrote in 2016 that, despite Khalifa's change of career, her social media feed was "still a bit more risqué than that of, say, Ben Bernanke.
[30] In May 2021, she made a cameo appearance in Bella Poarch's music video for "Build a Bitch", along with other internet celebrities such as Valkyrae, Bretman Rock, Larray, and ZHC.
[31][32][33] In June 2023, Khalifa launched a jewelry line called "Sheytan", an anglicized form of the Arabic word for "devil", alongside Sara Burn, a former Virgil Abloh collaborator.
The founder of the brand, Sofia Prantera, considers Khalifa to be her muse, stating "I felt immediately inspired by Mia’s 'Punk' attitude.
"[39] In November 2016, an online petition called for Khalifa to be appointed by President-elect Donald Trump as the next United States Ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
[45] At the 2021 CPI on the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil, Senator Luis Carlos Heinze mentioned that a study published in The Lancet on the effectiveness of chloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment was carried out by a company whose sales manager was a pornographic film actress.
"[46][51][52] In November 2023, Israeli music duo Ness & Stilla released the single "Harbu Darbu", which called for Khalifa's death alongside that of Bella Hadid and Dua Lipa.