Welcome to AP Spotlight. Every month, we’ll pick an AP Creator of the Month and interview them, and they send us a little video intro with some quick tips for other AP Creators.

For June, our AP Creator of the Month is EspiKvlt Let’s meet them…

How’d you get started making adult content?
I started in 2012 by making photo sets. I began on a certain website that lots of alternative people get their start in porn on, and from there I started independently selling photo sets. Once I realized people were actually interested in buying photo sets directly from me and I started making a decent chunk of change from it, I slowly graduated to selling strip videos and eventually full-on, penetrative, solo porn.

How long have you been making content?
Seven years. My eight year sexworkversary is September 24th!

What inspires your content?
My main inspiration for my content are just the things I’m really interested in and passionate about: music, video games, comic books, etc. I really like my personality to shine through in my porn and I like to show off the things that make me uniquely me!

What’s your favorite content you’ve ever made?
I’d have to say my video “Get In There, B.O.B.!” I put together a cosplay for Ashe from Overwatch a mere week after she was announced as a character and it was flawless from head to toe. The story idea for the porn was so awesome and fun to do (Ashe fucking her robot, B.O.B.), and the lighting and angles were some of the prettiest and sexiest I’ve ever done. Truly one of my proudest moments as a sex worker.

How do you promote your brand, and what’s the most successful method(s) for you?
The main way I promote my brand is by having an active social media presence. I have people follow me on social media (particular Twitter) for all kinds of reasons: my politics, my music, my discussions about trans issues. I’d say at least half my customers followed me for some reason besides porn and ended up buying my porn later after realizing that’s another thing I do. My main mode of marketing is to just be myself and be active online to get peoples’ attention.

What’s your trick to balancing your daily life?
I make sure I dedicate certain time to myself each day and don’t let sex work consume my life. It’s easy to fall into that trap when we never really have an actual “break.” We’re constantly marketing, corresponding, etc. But each day I make sure to set time aside for meditation, a daily walk, time to play videos, time to write, time to work on my music, hang out with my partner and my pets, whatever I can do for multiple hours each day that isn’t related to sex work in any way. If I realize I’ve been editing something for several hours, I force myself to take breaks and to step away. I force myself to not answer any emails from customers for several hours each day. It’s unhealthy and easy to burn out if you don’t do this.

If you could give a new creator advice, what would it be?
Know your boundaries. Research how to protect yourself online. Know what your brand is and try to stick to it if you want customers to keep coming back to you. Prepare yourself for complex situations (family and friends finding out, future employers finding out, etc). Focus on your mental health above all else. Be patient – it takes a lot of hard and dedicated work to build a platform.

If you make customs – what’s the weirdest request and did you do it?
I have had many a weird request, but there was one guy in particular that had a belly button and CPR fetish. A very odd combination of very weird fetishes. He’d commission me all the time to send him videos “masturbating” with my belly button and performing CPR. Honestly, the belly button thing kind of grossed me out, but it was an easy enough ask, so I’d always do them. The only time I refused was when he asked me to do it in a “neon 80’s outfit” because I have never owned anything like that in my life.

How do you film? Any special lighting equipment/camera? Feel free to share some of your tips.
I film with a Canon Rebel T5i, two umbrella lights, and a ring light (though I mix up the lighting setup depending on what’s necessary). My main tips are that natural lighting with cloud cover will always look the best if it’s possible for you film that way and that DSLRs are a worthwhile investment.

What do you like about using AP as a platform?
There are many things I love about AP that are unique to this platform: The generous payout is of course awesome. There is also a strong sense of community here that is unlike any other site – if I have a problem, if I have feedback, I know someone will listen to me. And not just as a formality. I know they will truly care and want to hear what I have to say. Because of AP, I was able to grow as a creator like never before, thanks to a constant support network and the uplifting people who run the site. It’s even deeper than a community for me, it’s a family. I am truly happier with AP than any other site I work on.

Has your brand evolved since you started? If so, how?
Not really, actually! I’ve been fairly consistent since I started: black metal, cosplay, nerdy stuff. The only thing that’s changed over time is how far I was willing to go (from nude sets, to strip videos, to masturbation). I think my consistency is part of the reason why I have so many long-time customers who have been there since the very beginning of my career.

What are you watching on Netflix right now?
– I’m not watching anything on Netflix currently, but I’m watching What We Do in the Shadows on Hulu and it’s now my favorite show! If you love vampires, horror, and some of the funniest comedy I’ve ever seen, check it out!

What’s a meme to describe yourself?

I chose this one because this is a struggle I often have as a sex worker who also happens to be a black metal musician. Not only do I feel I wasted my make-up if I wear it and don’t shoot any content, but ESPECIALLY if the make-up I put on was corpse paint. So many wasted hours.

We like to refer to you as the Cosplay Genius. Tell us how you got into cosplay and how you incorporate it into your content.
First of all, thank you, I am honored. I’d say I got into cosplay from a very young age – as young as eleven, the time I dressed up as Darth Vader for Halloween. I did not just wear that costume that one night, that’s for sure! When I was 18, I did my first non-Halloween related cosplay when I put a Flame Princess (Adventure Time) cosplay together – not for sex work reasons, just for fun. And then the first porn-related cosplay I ever did was when I put together a Darth Talon cosplay. I shot a set in the desert and then shot a strip video in my college dorm room, and it really just took off from there. Now whenever I get invested in a new character, I’m no doubt already thinking up ways I can cosplay as them. I usually try to do both a set and a video with any cosplay I do and really try to get into character.

For example, when I did a cosplay as Nurse Mercy from Overwatch, I really pretended to be her – I pretended I was a nurse taking care of another wounded Overwatch character and it was definitely more a performance than simply a quick masturbation video. For the time I am shooting that content, I am totally that character, and I am always thinking up inventive new things I can turn into sex toys – a syringe for the Nurse Mercy video, an ice dildo for a winter Poison Ivy video, a Nerf gun with a dildo stuck inside for a McCree video, a Blaire Witch-style stick figure for a Blaire Witch video, the possibilities are truly endless and it’s why cosplay is the most fun kind of content to do!

You come up with so many new fresh ideas! Any tips for SW who hit a wall with coming up with new ideas?
If I’m out of ideas, the very first thing I do is rummage through my wardrobe and first think about what I haven’t used in a porn yet. Once I find multiple outfits I have never used in a video, I then try to think about new and creative ways I can use them. For example, one time I was rummaging through my wardrobe and realized I had an old dress I’d never used in a video that would be perfect for cosplaying Faith from Far Cry 5. It ended up being a super creative video with tons of fake butterflies and fake flowers that looked like the ones from the game that I masturbated with.

Another thing I like to do is peruse the content other people are coming up with for inspiration. Not to directly copy them but to see what kind of fetishes people are doing that I’d have never thought to do myself. For instance, I noticed a ton of people were doing JOI videos, so I figured I’d try it out myself. It ended up selling extremely well and so I started doing a bunch more after that, and I found a whole new customer base just doing those! Don’t be afraid to look to others for inspiration!

How did you come up with your stage name?
My first name, Espi, is a shortened version of Espeon. I shortened to make it sound more like a “real” name because I thought going by “Espeon” would be kinda strange. But Espeon is my favorite Pokemon. And then Kvlt is a black metal term, which is why I chose that as my last name.

Hit us with your social media links so people can follow you on all the things:
twitter.com/espikvlt
instagram.com/espikvlt
https://linktr.ee/espikvlt (Links to all my music.)