Spiegler immediately booked Ritchie a handful of scenes to ensure she was comfortable with the work. The feedback on her performances and professionalism was so glowing that he offered her a spot on his roster after just two weeks.

When Ritchie finally got back on that plane to return to England, it was merely to pack her belongings so she could move to LA permanently. She returned on Aug. 12 and has worked at a furious pace ever since.

“She’s the perfect fit for this industry,” Spiegler says. “We want perverts. We want people doing this not just because of the money, but because they like it. And it’s obvious Gal genuinely loves this job.”

Indeed, one year later, Ritchie is arguably the fastest-rising star in porn. She’s filmed an eye-popping 115 studio scenes in the past 12 months, a shooting bender that should ensure a shoo-in for an AVN Best New Starlet nomination. Heck, she’d have to be among the favorites at this point.

Ritchie has flourished in virtually every adult genre. Whether she’s getting pounded by noted pipe-layer Jax Slayher, throating well-hung swordsman Isiah Maxwell, seducing her professor or delivery driver for a taboo shoot or bringing Kenzie Taylor to orgasm in a lesbian tryst, Ritchie gives an A-list performance every time she's on set.

Award-winning director Ricky Greenwood says it’s rare to see a rookie talent—especially one in her early 20s—perform at such a high level this early in her career.

“She already has a lot of the qualities that a more mature talent would have,” Greenwood says. “The sex scenes are natural. They don’t look forced. She’s not just doing this for a paycheck. When you watch her scenes, it’s clear she’s having fun.”

Unlike most new performers, Ritchie hardly entered the industry naive and ill-prepared. About six years ago, the longtime porn connoisseur began saving links to her favorite scenes in the “notes” section of her iPhone. Time and time again, she’d rewatch the clips, sometimes for masturbatory pleasure, but other times to study and learn from legends such as Angela White, Cherie DeVille, and others.

However, perhaps the most valuable trait Ritchie has acquired in the industry is her ease of use in front of the camera. Even though she may get butterflies before a scene—especially with a top-flight talent she used to watch—Ritchie is at her best when the recording begins.

It’s a quality, Ritchie says, that was shaped by her past.

*****

Long before she was a famous adult star, Gal Ritchie wanted to be the next Christian Aguilera. Or Jennifer Lopez. Or any of the other artists from the compilation album “Pop Princesses: 2004.”

Time and time again during her childhood, Ritchie would choreograph dance routines to the album’s various songs and perform them for 10 or so relatives in the family living room.

“I was that annoying kid at Christmas,” Ritchie chuckles. “I wanted everyone to watch me dance and sing.”

By age 9, Ritchie had become obsessed with the performing arts. Her favorite Hanukkah gift each year was a trip to a musical in London with her grandmother. “Wicked,” “Into the Woods,” and “Grease” were among her favorites, although none of them topped “Legally Blonde,” mainly because of lead character Elle Woods.

“A strong, independent female icon,” Ritchie says.

As she watched from the audience, Ritchie began envisioning herself on the stage. At the age of 10, she decided to pursue dance—and not just as a recreational activity or hobby. Like a high-level youth athlete whose life revolves around sports, Ritchie went full throttle in an effort to be the best.

Ritchie attended practice sessions at her dance studio every Monday through Friday for three hours after school. An all-day “training camp” was held each Saturday, and Sundays were reserved for competitions.

Ritchie says she couldn’t have maintained her grueling schedule without the support of her mother, who raised Gal on her own while her father battled addiction issues following his experiences as a Navy Seal.

“She’d been up since 4 a.m. working,” Ritchie says. “Instead of going home and making herself dinner, she’d come pick me up and take me to practice, and then she’d come and pick me up. My mom wasn’t wealthy, but she paid for everything. Instead of getting nice things for herself, she paid for my dance classes.”

Ritchie’s routine became particularly intense at age 16, when she received a scholarship to a dance academy in Winchester, England, three hours from her village in Brighton. Ritchie trained at the dance academy for six months, and her future appeared bright.

But suddenly, the program’s funding was cut, and the opportunity vanished. After six years of having her life controlled by dance, Ritchie decided to walk away from her biggest passion.

Still, she says, her experiences with dance helped mold her character and continue to pay dividends today.

“I absolutely attribute the drive I have today to how much discipline was created through dance,” Ritchie says. “The extra work after school, going to all of those competitions … those were such long days for someone that young.

“And if you’re not putting in the time or the hours, you’re not going to win the competition. That whole mindset still impacts everything I do.”

With dancing in her past, Ritchie—who was still 16—got a full-time job doing customer service at the front desk of a hotel in a run-down area of London.

Constructed in the 1860s, the hotel was grossly understaffed, Ritchie says, so she eventually found herself responsible for seven different tasks, including security. Ritchie never had to break up any fights, but she did discover three dead bodies. One was an elderly man who died in his room; the other two were homeless people who overdosed after sneaking into the building via fire escape.

“I was 16 or 17 having to deal with all of these adult responsibilities, which was amazing,” Ritchie says. “I couldn’t not show up for work or even call in sick, because there was no one else to run the front desk.

“It was rough, but it gave me so much discipline. All of the things that make you a responsible adult, I learned at a young age.”

After two years, Ritchie decided to walk away from her hotel job to pursue a career in the sex industry. Her interest had been piqued a few years earlier after seeing the movie “Showgirls.” Even though the film portrayed exotic dancers in a somewhat negative light, Ritchie was in awe that women could “encapsulate their sexual identity into a career.” Ritchie had also become a huge porn fan by that point and was constantly reading books with sexual subject matter.

Ritchie auditioned to become a stripper and was immediately offered a job, but because she goes to bed around 8 p.m. each night, she knew it wouldn’t be a good fit.

Instead, Ritchie joined a camming agency and spent the next eight months developing a following online. Even though she was successful, Ritchie grew lonely and missed the social interaction that came with meeting people from various walks of life.

It helps explain why Ritchie agreed to meet one of her followers in person to fulfill a rather unusual request. The man asked Ritchie to beat him up. Punching, clawing, kicking. Anything goes.

“I was like, ‘Yeah, OK. Fuck it! I’m going to do this!’” Ritchie says. “I beat the shit out of him with my hands. There was also a lot of kicking because he was into cock-and-ball torture.”
The man was so impressed with the skills of the 18-year-old Ritchie that he suggested she become a professional dominatrix. He told her that she would need to be trained and certified to work in a dungeon in London.

Using the money she’d saved from her hotel job, Ritchie enrolled at the London School of Domination. She began learning about everything from consent and boundaries to corporal punishment and verbal humiliation. After six months, at age 19, she received her certificate and officially entered the world of BDSM.

All of a sudden, the girl who once dreamed of dancing before thousands on stage was strapping on a dildo and pegging guys in dark dungeons. The former hotel desk clerk who dealt with noise complaints was wearing leather while whipping men and forcing them to lick her feet. Ritchie also became good at sissification, which involved her painting her clients’ faces with makeup, making them put on dresses, and teaching them to walk in heels.

Ritchie did the job for two years and said she loved it until the very end when she began to experience burnout. A submissive by nature, Ritchie said, “having to get into character” to be a dominatrix became tiresome, and she worried she might enter a session irritated and in the wrong mindset.

“Not that I would ever hurt anyone,” she says, “but there are so many specific lines of what people like and what you can and can’t call them. People were sending in scripts for sessions and I could feel myself getting agitated. I didn’t want to tell someone to fuck off or act unprofessionally in that kind of environment.”

Ritchie laughs.

“So I hung up my whip,” she says.

Ritchie entered the corporate world in London, where she recruited engineers for large software companies such as Meta. Ritchie says she was good at the job, but the office environment was boring compared to the fast-paced hotel and, of course, the dungeons.

“I mainly sat around and fantasized about fucking all of the guys at the office,” Ritchie says. “The job wasn’t exciting in any way. I needed to do something more fulfilling, something that tickled me.”

So Ritchie picked up her phone and called Spiegler.

*****

For years now, Mark Spiegler has been known to show up to porn sets—often with a box of pastries—to check on his performers and hobnob with directors and crew members.

Multiple times last summer and fall, the agent arrived with a friend in tow: Gal Ritchie.

Even though Ritchie wasn’t involved in the shoot, Spiegler wanted the industry’s higher-ups to get some face time with the rising star. Spiegler knew Ritchie would make a lasting impression just as she did with him.

“It’s one thing to see someone’s pictures,” Spiegler says. “But getting your face in front of people and letting them meet you in person makes a huge difference. You want them to remember you.”

Spiegler did the same with performers such as Abella Danger, Gianna Dior, and Alina Lopez—three of the most successful talents in his agency’s history. He sensed the same type of star potential in Ritchie within days of meeting her in June 2023, an introduction that had been long in the making.

During her dominatrix stint in London, Ritchie first established contact with Spiegler when she was 18. “I hounded him,” she chuckles. The communication fell off during COVID, but Ritchie began reaching out again last spring as she became increasingly frustrated with her office job.

When Ritchie finally flew to Los Angeles to meet Spiegler last June, the two instantly connected. For the first nine months of her career, Ritchie lived in a spare room at Spiegler’s home. Whenever she had a booking, Spiegler drove her to and from the set. He helped her land shoots with A-list studios such as Brazzers, Vixen, and Adult Time and was always there to offer advice when needed.

“Spiegler is my best friend—and the father figure I never had,” Ritchie says. “I’d watched documentaries and interviews with him, but I still didn’t expect him to be so caring. He is a man who stands behind his word.

“I’ve never met anyone like him. I told him if he didn’t represent me, I didn’t want to be in the industry.”

Ritchie has certainly capitalized on the opportunities Spiegler has helped her obtain. It started with her first scene last June with longtime male talent Charles Dera, a last-minute replacement for Team Skeet.

“I’ve masturbated to that man since I was 15,” Ritchie says. “It was like going on a date. You get these butterflies and nerves—all the things that make you excited to fuck someone.”

Just like her dance performances years earlier, though, Ritchie found comfort in the spotlight and brought her A-game when it was time to perform. As word about her sexual prowess spread throughout the industry during the summer and fall, it became apparent she had found her calling.

“I didn’t realize how much of an exhibitionist I was,” Ritchie says. “I didn’t realize how much I’d love people watching me have sex.”

The buzz about Ritchie—the reason her star continues to soar—extends far beyond her physical appearance and her ability to make men (and women) cum. It’s the tangibles Ritchie brings to set that have catapulted her into porn’s upper echelon of performers.

The director Greenwood said he’s been taken aback by the positive energy Ritchie brings to every shoot. And also with how committed she is to making sure she’s prepared for scenes involving acting and heavy dialogue.

“A lot of people in their 20s struggle with the lines,” Greenwood says. “But she learns every line. She takes it so seriously. She doesn’t want to look bad.”

Greenwood was so impressed with Ritchie’s effort during a Pure Taboo scene last fall that he pitched her for the lead in a feature he was shooting for Dorcel in February of this year. Dorcel executives hesitated to book a newcomer in such a prestigious role, but after having dinner with Ritchie at the XBIZ convention, they sensed Greenwood’s instincts were spot on. The feature will debut early next year.

“She absolutely crushed it,” Greenwood says.

While she prides herself in being versatile, Ritchie says her favorite shoots involve twisted storylines involving things such as incest, student-teacher hookups, and adultery. “The more fucked up, the better,” she says. Nothing, though, excites Ritchie more than shooting for Kink alongside highly-respected dom JohnPaul the Pope.

“I’m a bit of a pain slut,” Ritchie says. “When you combine completely being under someone’s will with pain, it’s the biggest endorphin rush. Those are my favorite days.

“One of my biggest reasons for joining the industry was being able to explore my sexuality in a safe way. In normal life, you can’t have a one-night stand and tell the guy, ‘Hey, fuck me up!’ You’re going to get hurt because the person isn’t going to know what he’s doing. So this is the perfect environment for me.”

However, the highlight of Ritchie’s career thus far has been her work for Brazzers. She said she was shocked when the industry titan asked her to sign at its booth during this January's AVN Expo in Las Vegas.

Since then, she’s appeared in numerous scenes and promo shoots for the studio, including a recent 20-person orgy to celebrate Brazzers’ 20 years in the industry. Among the participants were legends such as Keiran Lee, Angela White, Kira Noir, Cherie DeVille, and Manuel Ferrara.

“Even though I probably haven’t done enough to prove myself, they gave me this massive chance,” Ritchie says. “Those performers are like the cage fighters of the industry. You throw them in with each other and you know you’re going to watch something good.”

While Ritchie may not boast the experience or accolades of her orgy cohorts, she’s certainly on a similar trajectory.

And she’s determined to reach the top.

Ritchie is asleep by 8:30 each evening and hits the gym thrice weekly. Her health and nutrition are on point, and she continues to market herself throughout the industry by visiting sets with Spiegler and going to dinners with executives whenever possible. She also isn’t hesitant to seek advice from friends and colleagues such as Abella Danger and Kenzie Taylor.

“She likes to go out and have fun, but in moderation,” Spiegler says. “She knows you have to put your nose to the grindstone, especially in the beginning. I liken starting your career to starting college. You put your head down and really dig for a few years. You build a base and then you go from there.”

A few times a week, when she has some free time, Ritchie takes out her phone and updates the list of favorite porn scenes she’s kept for years in her notes folder. Then she’ll go back and watch some of the old ones.

“Submission, hog-tied, lesbian squire, Hentai,” Ritchie says as she reads from the list. “Xander Corvus, Cherie DeVille, Seth Gamble, Kink, Pure Taboo.”

It’s clear that Ritchie isn’t just a fan of the industry but a student of it. She says it’s surreal to think that her scenes are likely now on people’s “favorites” list worldwide.

“I don’t want to be in porn for two years and then fuck off,” Ritchie says. “I don’t see this as a stepping stone to something else. I want a long career. I’m going to do this until people don’t want to see me anymore.”