Zara Whites

Zara Whites was born Esther Kooiman, in Rotterdam on 8 November 1968, although her family soon moved to Gravondeel, near Dordrecht where she grew up. Zara was apparently a good student at school and extremely popular with the other children. As a little girl she was always curious. When she was four years old Zara began experimenting with her Barbie dolls, and at age nine she discovered masturbation and experienced her first orgasm. "I started masturbating when I was nine years old while looking at a porn magazine I found. I found it really strange and I thought I was going to die. I ended up shouting to my mother for help. Her reaction was really good. She explained to me that I had just had my first orgasm. When I was fifteen years old I started becoming interested in boys, and when I was seventeen I had sex for the first time. It wasn't a good experience though. I was in my room with this boy. He didn't even bother to fully undress me, he just fucked me really violently while shouting abuse at me." In an attempt to boost her confidence, young Zara became obsessed with sex and spent her teenage years going from one lover to another. She later recalled her love life during this period as extremely traumatic and hard.

Zara eventually dropped out of school at 17 and began living with her boyfriend. By the time she was 18 she was supporting herself working as a barmaid, and then as a doctor's secretary. After living with her boyfriend for two years, though, Zara realised the relationship was falling apart and wanted to get out. She was now 19, and being unable to support herself financially she decided to start working in a men's club. She later recalled: "I had nothing to lose and wanted to gain my independence and freedom. Within three months I was dancing, singing and prostituting myself in a private club in Amsterdam. The oldest profession in the world." It soon became clear that Zara was a natural. Her promiscuous youth meant that she had no inhibitions about sleeping with men for money, and would often sleep with the club's owner or his friends as well if it meant improving her position. "I loved sex and new experiences, I enjoyed having a man next to me. It was a time when the timid little girl from Rotterdam began enjoying the pleasures of sado-masochism, wild sex and too much cocaine." Zara's cocaine habit, however, meant that no matter how many clients she slept with, she was always short of money.

Although, by her own admission, she enjoyed working as a prostitute, she decided it was time to change her life and eventually contacted the Dutch modelling agency 'Veronique'. "I walked into a modelling agency just for fun - I didn't really think I was pretty enough. Straight away they asked me to do a daily TV show in Italy." Zara began working as a topless dancer on the TV quiz show 'Colpo Grosso' in Italy, where she remained for one and a half years. While there she began a living with a rich Italian, but the relationship soon fell apart and she moved to Paris. In France she started working as a call girl: “I had nothing to lose, and anyway I enjoy giving men pleasure and the idea of exhibiting myself turned me on. I've never had any inhibitions, and I'm also quite submissive.”

It was during her stay in Paris that Zara first had sex with another woman: “James [a client]… invited me to dinner and announced ‘I have a wonderful surprise for you that I think you're going to like.’ He introduced me to a beautiful woman. She was 23 but looked much younger. She was tall, soft, blond, with deep blue eyes. Her name was Janette. She was the kind of woman that men stop and stare at in the street. She kept starring at me all the time in a wild way, and kept touching me at every opportunity. She kept sliding her hand up my skirt and running it over my arse, then into my panties, eventually fingering me until I came. We were in a nightclub, and James and this woman just wouldn't stop touching and turning me on! Eventually I couldn't stand it anymore and insisted they take me to their hotel and fuck me. When we got back to the hotel room we quickly undressed each other and climbed onto the bed. James was touching me as Janette started licking me, then she started finger fucking me and driving me crazy. This continued all night as I adopted my submissive role, allowing them to do what they wanted with me. I was putty in their hands. I'd never felt this way before, never. It was so animalistic, wild and perverted. I did everything I could do with a man and a woman, and loved it! Janette completely dominated me; she took the initiative, touching, and licking me everywhere… Having sex with Janette was amazing… I never realised being with another woman could be so intense. She was an aphrodisiac, a drug. “

Zara also began doing soft-core adult modelling. "I was asked to do photo shoots for Penthouse and Hustler and those kind of magazines. I've been in just about every porn magazine there is - some three or four times." After a while she returned to Holland where "I met a guy who asked me to go with some girls to America to do pictures over there. I figured 'why not' and went. I ended up doing boy-girl pictures with Suze Randall for Penthouse. Those were with Rocco Siffredi. Rocco has kind of a big dick so I was sitting in front of him but his dick would show every time so we stuck it to his belly with tape, but he had a hard-on so it wouldn't stay. I ended up sitting on his dick so it wouldn't show and Rocco said, 'you can do this so you can also do porno movies.' I was pretty curious and said 'why not, let's give it a try.'" He introduced her to director John Stagliano who cast her in his film 'Buttman's Ultimate Workout' (1990) opposite Rocco.

Stagliano later recalled: "After I worked with Rocco and before I met Zara Whites, the two of them worked together for Suze Randall on a still shoot for Club. I talked to Zara and she said that she would work with Rocco and only him. Here was this beautiful girl that wanted a huge amount of money, but I wasn’t going to pass it up. She was so pretty and wholesome. She was also fun to shoot. I put that movie on just a few months ago and she still turns me on." Zara proved she was a natural in front of the camera, although later admitting: "I never really thought about doing porn before. I didn't really know enough about it to have an idea. It's a lot more fun than doing photo-shoots, and I like the acting." "I was nervous about the monologue in the masturbation scene - it was a long monologue. The sex scene excited me."

The success of the film led to her being given the lead in what became her favourite film, namely Andrew Blake's classic porn/art movie 'House Of Dreams' (1990). "The only thing missing from the movie is acting. I love to act, but we didn't have any dialogue in that movie. The director used to do lots of Playboy stuff so the movie is very pretty and dreamy and everyone just looks perfect in it. The director just shot away the bad parts of the body in it. It's porn but it's still very erotic. It's something women would like to see. Women don't like to see just a dick and a pussy and that's it, they want more from a movie." The film consolidated her reputation as a petite yet extremely sexual porn star. Her natural small breasts along with her Dutch accent provided a nice contrast to the existing porn actresses in America, and in 1991 she starred in 'Buttman's European Vacation' along with fellow Dutch actress Silver Forrest, and Rocco. This was without doubt her most explosive performance to date and led to her winning the prize for 'Best Threesome' with Silver and Rocco at the annual Adult Video Awards.

Zara admits that: "I love women. I'm definitely bi-sexual and I love to make love to women… I'll only work with people I like. I just don't like to pretend to make love with someone I don't like… I have to feel something for them - some chemistry so it's more natural. I love to make love with men too and in the movies it's actually easier. With women - who I really love to make love with - in the movies I don't enjoy it as much because when you're giving head you have to keep your head at an angle so the camera can see what you're doing. To me it's very difficult to eat her pussy like that, but otherwise the camera cannot see it. It's just a technical problem with eating women in the movies." Her favourite female co-star was Jeanna Fine. "I had to do this lesbian scene in House of Dreams with her. I don't really know what it was about her. We had some chemistry. She didn't have her boob job then and she had this boyish body. She was very feminine and very man-like at the same time. She had something about her that really excited me. I liked her very, very much. There was this scene in House of Dreams where she had a facial mask on with a dildo that came out of her mouth. She penetrated me with that and I just thought that was the most exciting thing I ever did."

Her bisexuality was not restricted to scenes in porn films. Although involved with various men, she also had affairs with numerous women. She was also an exhibitionist in her private life, and claims that one of her most memorable experiences was having sex in the toilets at a restaurant while waiting for the food to arrive.

Her parents had never been aware that their daughter had worked as a prostitute, but her exploits in front of the camera soon came to their attention. "My parents are so cool about it. When I started doing porn movies I called my mom and told her I was doing porn movies. She was not really happy about it but she was asking me about drugs and AIDS and that sort of thing. I told her I wasn't doing any drugs and that everything was cool. I brought her to California to see for herself what it was like. I don't know what the porn industry is like now but then, no one was doing drugs - we were like one big family having a great time. I brought her to America see and meet everyone. She went back to Holland and started her own agency. She's representing fashion models, adult stars that do magazine layouts and some porn stars. My parents are really cool people. In Holland everyone is much more liberal than they are in America."

Having re-assured her mother, Zara used the same tactics with her father. “My father accepted my invitation for him to come to Los Angeles… We spent the first day doing all the tourist stuff in LA and Hollywood… The next day I decided to tell him about my life. I explained to him what my job was, and attempted to dispel any fears he may have about drugs and violence in the industry. To prove to him that everything I was saying was true, I invited him to come to the set where they were shooting a scene with Rocco Siffredi and Jeanna Fine. The scene was set in a cabaret and was quite hard-core. I was watching my father as he sat through the shoot. He didn't appear to be very annoyed… It was hard to judge his reactions. He didn't say anything. He just sat there watching Rocco and Jeanna in action. I was afraid he was in a state of shock as it was the first time he had come face to face with live porn, so I suggested we go outside for a coffee and a cigarette. He just looked at me and said: ‘you go if you want, I'd like to see the end of the scene.’ I knew then that I'd won. My father had realised that there was nothing for him to be afraid about regarding my working in porn films. I later told him about working in brothels, and even about some of the adventures my girlfriends and I had had in the past.”

According to Zara, it was during this trip that she also confessed her bisexuality to her father. “That night we went out with Jeanna Fine, with whom I was having a relationship. During dinner Jeanna and I kept looking longingly at each other, and my father soon realised that we were more than just friends. At the end of the night he turned to me and said ‘leave me at the hotel if you want… you're going to sleep with Jeanna aren't you?’ I actually blushed, and realised for the first time what a strong character my father was. ‘Yes’, I answered, ‘I'm in love with her.’ My father stroked my head and turned to Jeanna. ‘Well, that's that then. But you've got to promise to be gentle with my little girl.’ I gave him the biggest hug I'd ever given him in my life. The 'little girl' was so happy. He was the best dad in the world! The next day we went for breakfast at the hotel where my father was staying. We were talking and I explained to him that I was attracted to both men and women.”

Zara now began moving between America and Europe and in 1992 appeared in the award winning French porn film 'Reves De Cuir', which involved extensive scenes of domination and sado-masochism. She had first become involved in sado-masochism when working as a prostitute in Amsterdam, but it was now to become a mainstay in her films, as the petite Dutch porn star was often seen in bondage gear being used by both men and women. Eventually in 1993 she quit the adult industry and became involved with Italian porn star Roberto Malone. "I was offered a lead role in a French TV series called 'Joy in Love'. It's about a high fashion model that goes off to exotic locations and ends up getting into adventures… I worked on the show for about six months and they asked me to stop porn while the show was airing. Well, they just keep airing those shows over and over again."

Her past as a porn star, however, often caused problems in her private life. Her relationship with Italian porn star Roberto Malone was the exception and they remained together for five years. "I stopped doing porn around the time I met him to do the series. He went on doing porn. The other boyfriend, even though I had stopped doing porn or anything erotic, he didn't like even my past so we fought a lot about that. It was pretty difficult." In 1998 she was asked whether she would like to return to the porn industry. "I would love to! There are a couple of things I'd have to work out first… Most of the movies I did made lots of money and I don't get any royalties. It's so unfair because like in Paris I'm so well known that I can't walk in the street… If I do another adult film it's got to be a very good story with a lot of acting. It would have to be very erotic porn so women would enjoy it also. I love doing porn and I'm missing it. Hell, I had a ball." In 2000 she finally returned to porn, starring in French director Alain Payet's 'La Dresseuse' where she appeared in extensive domination and lesbian scenes. This was followed soon after by another lesbian scene in 'Divina', directed by Mario Salieri. The following year Zara also posed for a lesbian threesome in Penthouse. This stunning photo shoot included Zara Whites, her supposed younger sister Luna, and Slovak porn star Olivia De Treville. Zara looked as beautiful as she did in her prime.

Zara Whites was one of the most attractive adult actresses to come out of Europe in the late 1980's. Her willingness to participate in anal sex scenes and facial come-shots seemed at odds with her sweet and innocent appearance. Although she only made about 25 films, a large number of movies have since been released containing edited scenes. Even in these cases though, her sexuality and ability to act always produces interesting results. Zara is a firm believer in pornography. "I don't understand that if the women enjoys having sex that way, why is it degrading for her. Why should porn be degrading to women and not for men? We can use men as much as they can use us. I don't understand why it should be degrading for women to open up their legs and not for a man to show his dick hanging halfway down his leg. If people don't like it they shouldn't watch it… As long as it is not child pornography, porn doesn't hurt anyone."

Aka: Amy Kooiman, Amy Kristensen, Pauline Peters
Real Name: Esther Kooiman
Date of Birth: 08/11/1968
Place of Birth: Netherlands
Stats: 32-22-34
Film Career: 1990-1993, 2000