Tori Welles grew up in sunny California, but her early years were anything but bright. Growing up a punk rock kid in a conservative, religious household was difficult for Welles. At 17, she was convinced to participate in an amateur night at a strip club. She wound up winning and soon after began working as a stripper at Seventh Veil strip club; she worked there on and off for years.

Going from stripping to performing in XXX movies was a natural move for Welles. She made her porn debut in 1988 when she was 21 years old and quickly became one of the most recognizable and sought after actresses in porn. Many websites credit Welles with having worked in the industry for over a decade, but the truth is that she was only in the biz for a little over 2 years. Welles spoke on this topic in an interview in 2011, "I was in for just a little over two years and I'm 44. So that's a pretty small slice of my life. It's really interesting when you think about the fact that I didn't do anything outrageous or a ton of stuff. I was in a few magazines and did the covers for my boxes of course but I didn't really do that many movies. Definitely not by today's standards. I'm always amazed to go to an adult store and see that they have a Tori Welles section. It's like "Really?" I only did like 15 or 20 films. I know now that on Wikipedia or IMDB they count compilations and there are a ton of those and they still put them out, but I am talking about actual individual movies that I was in and shot covers for. There weren't very many."

Although her career was short, Welles is widely considered one of porn's most famous faces. Over the course of her career, she had the opportunity to work with some of the best production companies in the industry, including Adam & Eve, Evil Angel, Moonlight Entertainment, Pleasure Productions, and many more. She was even a contract girl - Vivid Girl - for Vivid Entertainment.