AVN Award for Best Actor

AVN Award for Best Actor
AVN award for contributions of actors to pornography
The 2026 recipient: Tommy Pistol
Awarded forBest Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Sponsored byAVN
LocationLas Vegas
CountryUSA
Presented byAVN Media Network
First award1984 (1984)
Final award2026
Most recent winnerTommy Pistol
Strip (2026)
Highlights
Most winsTommy Pistol
(6 awards)
Total awarded65
(42–for films,
23–for videos)
First winnerRichard Pacheco
Irresistible (1984)
Websiteavnawards.avn.com

The AVN Award for Best Actor is an award that has been given annually by sex industry company AVN since the award's inception in 1984. Until 2008, the award was awarded annually for two different categories–film and video. From 2009, it is awarded annually for a single category. First recipient of the award was Richard Pacheco, who was awarded at the 1st AVN Awards in 1984 for his performance in Irresistible. As of January 2026, Tommy Pistol is the most honored pornographic actor with six awards followed by Mike Horner, Randy Spears, Evan Stone with five awards, Steven St. Croix, Tom Byron and Seth Gamble with four awards, Buck Adams and Eric Edwards with three awards while six pornographic actors–Jon Dough, Dale DaBone, Brad Armstrong, Robert Bullock, Jon Martin and James Bonn–have won the award two times. Jamie Gillis is the oldest recipient of the award at the age of 53 for his performance in Bobby Sox (1997) and Steven St. Croix is the youngest recipient of the award at the age of 26 for his performance in Chinatown (1995). Two pornographic actors, Mike Horner and Tom Byron, have each won in the most decades–three. The most recent recipient is Tommy Pistol, who was honored at the 43rd AVN Awards in 2026 for his performance in Strip.