Growing up in Chicago, Veruca James attended DePaul University after graduating from high school-DePaul bills itself as the largest Catholic college in the nation. She graduated with a double major in accounting and finance; that's right-this black haired beauty was a CPA before she began performing in XXX movies. In an interview with LA Weekly in 2013, just 2 short years after her porn debut, Veruca had this to say about her former career choice, "I would go in to work on Sunday at 4 p.m. because my manager decided that some paper required more meticulous authorization," she says, "and I would come home bawling my eyes out. I hated putting in that much work for something that did nothing for me, for anyone else; that was all just paperwork." Around the same time, after one year of marriage, she and her husband of the time split up. Her marriage over and having just quit her job, Veruca moved back to Chicago. She started hanging out at new bars and meeting people who were living alternative lifestyles. "I come from such a conservative background that it was like, 'Oh my God, I met a porn star! And a stripper!' Which in the Midwest is a really crazy thing," she described. Initially shocked to encounter adult performers in person, she quickly realized, "'Oh, you're around everywhere. You're ... people,'" and became friends with a few women who worked for Burning Angel; and her curiosity got the best of her. She applied online and with just a simple form and a few nude photos; she got a call from the company saying they were interested and she was elated at the offer. Veruca had always considered herself an exhibitionist, and felt that she had lost something of herself in her average 9-5 job and vanilla lifestyle; she accepted Burning Angel's offer and shot her first scene-an anal scene-and fell in love with performing. She shot about 10 more scenes in Chicago before realizing that she had a decision to make: either quit now, or move forward with it and never look back. So she decided to continue performing porn; it was a new way of life and she felt she belonged there. "I wake up every day just excited to work and to be around the people I'm around," she has said. James has gone on to perform in hundreds of movies over the course of her career in the porn biz, working with some of the biggest studios in the industry, including: Vivid, Evil Angel, Hush Hush Entertainment, Kink.com, and many more. She is a bright girl and fully understands that performing is not something that will last forever, noting that there will come a time when people, "[...]don't want to see you naked," she says, adding, "I'd like to start building a more diversified portfolio. Eventually I'd like to have my own company, and do my own shooting. Something where I could keep my own books." Awards: 2017 XRCO Unsung Siren