Kira Kener, born Stephanie Lynn Knain on August 11, 1974, in San Jose, California, grew up in a middle-class family of Norwegian (father) and Vietnamese (mother) descent. Raised in San Jose, she legally changed her name to Kira Kener, also registering it as a trademark, per en-academic.com. After high school, she began exotic dancing in North Carolina in her early 20s, winning titles like Miss Nude Asia (1997, 1998) and Exotic Dancer Cover Girl of the Year (1998). She entered the adult film industry in 1999 at age 25, signing an exclusive contract with Vivid Entertainment to become a "Vivid Girl" after a trip to Los Angeles, debuting in Nurses (1999). She appeared in over 150 films from 1999 to 2007, including Swirl (2000), Eye Spy (2000), True Blue (2001), Facade (2000), and Where the Boys Aren’t 14 (2000), with her performances noted for their exotic allure and versatility in lesbian and heterosexual scenes, per IMDb and IAFD. Kener collaborated with performers like Briana Banks, Cheyenne Silver, and Rocco Siffredi, per WhosDatedWho. She was Penthouse Pet of the Month (December 2002) and shared the cover of Playboy (March 2002) with other Vivid Girls, per es.wikipedia.org. She contributed to the book How to Have a XXX Sex Life: The Ultimate Vivid Guide (2004) and was featured in Timothy Greenfield-Sanders’s XXX: 30 Porn-Star Portraits (2004), per EverybodyWiki. In 2007, Digital Playground released Virtual Sex With Kira Kener (filmed 2005), her only hardcore film without condoms for male partners, nominated for Best Interactive DVD at the 2008 AVN Awards, per Boobpedia.