When the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) acted on an anonymous tip that Lords was a minor during her time in the industry, and that pornographers were distributing and selling these illegal images and videotapes, the resulting fallout led to prosecution of those responsible for creating and distributing the tapes,[2] but the prosecutions fell through when it was revealed she was using a real federal passport as her proof of age along with a fake birth certificate and fake California drivers license (which were used to obtain the passport).

After leaving the pornography industry two days after turning the legal age of eighteen, Lords enrolled at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute, where she studied method acting with the intention of becoming a mainstream actress.

She made her mainstream screen debut at age nineteen in a leading role in the 1988 remake of the 1957 Roger Corman science fiction film Not of This Earth.

After her song "Love Never Dies" was featured on the soundtrack to the film Pet Sematary Two (1992), she was signed to Radioactive Records and subsequently released her debut studio album, 1000 Fires (1995) to generally positive reviews.

It peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart and was included on the soundtrack to the film Mortal Kombat (1995), which was eventually certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

According to Lords, this and a rape by a 16-year-old boy in school she had been seeing, which she called "the single most traumatizing thing that ever happened to me in my life", would be what eventually drove her into pornography.

During August, when she was selected to model for Penthouse magazine's September 1984 15th-anniversary issue, Lords was asked to choose a stage name.

After turning 16 and appearing with John Leslie (an actor 23 years her senior) in the porno parody Talk Dirty to Me Part III (which won the AVN Award for the best movie), Lords was hailed as the "Princess of Porn".

Dell and Lords made a distribution deal with Sy Adler, an industry veteran who ran Vantage International, in which they would produce three movies for the company.

Leslie Jay, a spokeswoman for Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione, also said Lords showed identification indicating that she was older than 18 before the illicit photos for the September 1984 issue were taken.

"[20][21] On July 17, 1986, video rental shops and adult movie theaters in the US scrambled to remove from their inventory all hardcore material featuring Lords in order to avoid prosecution for distributing child pornography.

John Weston, attorney of the Adult Film Association of America, said distributors should withdraw any movie made before May 1986, featuring Lords "in sexual conduct, no matter how briefly."

[19][22][23] Government prosecutors declared that Lords was a victim of a manipulative industry, maintaining that she was drugged and made to do non-consensual acts.

[24] Industry insiders, including Ron Jeremy, Tom Byron, Peter North, and Ginger Lynn said they never saw her use drugs and that she was always fully aware of her actions.

[26] Shortly afterwards, she met the director Jim Wynorski, who was directing the remake of Roger Corman's 1957 sci-fi classic Not of This Earth.

[27] She also signed with a modeling agency under her birth name Nora Kuzma and appeared on two covers of Joe Weider's magazine Muscle & Fitness.

[44] After meeting with Rodney Bingenheimer at a birthday party, she was recommended to Jeff Jacklin, who hired her to record the song "Love Never Dies" for the movie Pet Sematary Two (1992).

During January 1995, Lords appeared in four episodes of the television series Melrose Place, where she played the part of Rikki Abbott.

It received generally positive reviews and the lead single "Control" peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs.

[49] An instrumental version of "Control" was remixed and released on the soundtrack to Mortal Kombat (1995), which was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

The album's second single, "Fallen Angel", was also successful in charts, peaking at number eleven on Hot Dance Club Songs.

[50] On August 12, 1995, she was the opening act of the Lollapalooza after-party, Enit Festival, alongside Moby, Sven Väth, DJ Keoki and Single Cell Orchestra.

She played a felon, Sharon Lesher, who is manipulated by a serial killer Jack-of-All-Trades and eventually becomes his partner in crime Jill-of-All-Trades.

Her role of Sam in the romantic comedy Chump Change earned her the Film Discovery Jury Award for Best Actress at the U.S.

She played Jordan Radcliffe, an heiress and leader of the Human Resistance Group "The Raven Nation" after the aliens used her brother to murder her parents.

In the book, Lords revealed that she received about $35,000 as total compensation for all her porno movies, including the $5,000 for her underage appearance in Penthouse.

On December 28, 2004, she independently released two songs, "Sunshine" and "You Burn Inside of Me", via online music store CD Baby.

[74] In 2009, Lords appeared in the direct-to-DVD science fiction movie, Princess of Mars, alongside Antonio Sabàto Jr. She was disappointed by the final project.

[82] Lords co-starred in Jim Wynorski's television horror Sharkansas Women's Prison Massacre (2015) and made her second appearance as Val on the series EastSiders.

[89] In November, it was announced that Lords voiced the character of Jackal Z in the upcoming video game Let It Die (2016), and will appear on the third season of EastSiders.