Fresh Faces: Maria Kazi

A version of this feature appeared in the January issue of AVN magazine. Click here for the digital edition. Maria Kazi calls them “my minions.” It’s the army of admirers that follows her Snapchat feed, which she started about after turning 18 in September and splitting with her fiancé. “They’re my little fans,” Kazi says with a laugh. Maria built a following almost immediately as she got more comfortable taking sexy pictures of herself. It helps that she has a natural flair for marketing. “I used Tinder to promote my Snapchat,” she reveals. But Kazi hasn’t been sending out as many naughty snaps recently because she launched her porn career in November, performing her first scene for BackroomCastingCouch in Phoenix. “I feel like it went pretty well,” Maria says. “It was nothing like people make it out to be. It wasn’t creepy or perverted. I felt very safe, very respected. Honestly, I had a lot of fun.” She says she actually knew what Backroom Casting Couch was before she went. “It’s a very popular website,” Maria says, adding that she already has received interest from Blacked.com and Hustler’s Barely Legal magazine. “It’s very crazy to me, very unreal,” she admits. Kazi says her prior experience with being filmed included “a few homemade things but never anything that had been posted.” “I was pretty excited,” she continues. “I’m somebody who likes to have sex and the idea of being able to turn it into a business—a career type-of-thing—that’s very exciting… And the fact that it’s in a safe manner—I know it’s clean and proper—makes it even better.” Kazi at press time had only a handful of scenes on the market — including sessions for ExploitedCollegeGirls, BlackAmbush, FTVGirls and Team Skeet — with many more coming soon. “I do have a very wild side,” Maria admits. “I actually have a reputation for acting out. I was always just the person who wants to have a good time… And I’m going to do what I want.” A native of New Mexico, Kazi got her GED when she was 16 and now is studying health care administration. When she started her adult career she still was working at Walmart as a pharmacy tech in between trips to LA. She says she was a cheerleader in high school who was “a social butterfly.” “I was all over the place. I liked to travel a lot,” she explains. Kazi—it’s pronounced like “cause-y”—says she is optimistic about 2022. “I am manifesting wealth and happiness and freedom,” she says. “Honestly, I am using the industry to liberate myself from that mundane 9-to-5, five days a week routine. “This feels like it has so much more purpose to me. I’ll have time to take care of myself and nourish myself and I get to travel, which is massive for me.” Matrix Models owner John Steven, who connected with Kazi after she posted her profile on SexyJobs, tells AVN the fresh-faced performer has gotten off to an incredible start.   “My classic comment—and I’ve said this to her—is she is the first 18-year-old MILF I’ve ever met in my life,” Steven jokes. “She is so focused and mature for her age. Literally, every single person who has met her, the first words out of their mouth are, 'I can’t believe you’re 18 years old.' In terms of what I think her potential is, I think she has the potential to be one of the main superstars of 2022.”Steven adds, “She is stunningly pretty and she has a voracious sexual appetite.” Kazi says the “turning point” in her life was when she and her best friend ran away to Canada when she was 13. “I would do it again in a heartbeat,” says Maria, who stayed with her aunt while in Canada. Born and raised near Albuquerque, Kazi says her first job was as an art teacher at a studio for about three years. She taught a class for 2- to 6-year-olds and also did some commissioned art. Then for most of 2021 she worked in the Walmart pharmacy. She enjoys creating ceramic art at the moment but when she was teaching she was working with acrylics, oils and occasionally pastels. “I like to do a lot of landscapes,” Kazi explains. “New Mexico has some of the most gorgeous mountains ever, so there’s a lot of inspiration. “I’ve done some animal portraits as well, but they aren’t as solid as my landscapes.” Kazi says she stopped working at the studio when Covid hit. “Covid came and absolutely crushed my dreams,” she adds. “It was a fairly small studio and once the restrictions came out that you can’t do in-person classes—it is pretty hard to teach kids to do pottery over Facetime, so the studio closed down for a while and I moved over to Walmart.” She tells AVN her mom at first didn’t like the idea of her move into porn but “she’s warmed up to it a lot more now." “She sees that I’m safe and making good money and enjoying what I’m doing,” Kazi adds.