List of actors in gay pornographic films
This is a list of notable men who have appeared in gay pornographic films. Pornography has become more mainstream and as of 2009 was a $13 billion industry in the United States; globally consumers spent more than US$3000 on porn every second of every day, in 2009. The gay market is estimated to be five to ten percent of the overall adult market. Gay pornographic films trace their origins to the Athletic Model Guild, founded in Los Angeles in 1945, which produced photographs and still images later turned into films and  porn loops. The modern roots of films can be traced to the early 1970s when movies were shown in New York theaters. Over time the "heterosexual adult industry blossomed in Southern California" and often included gay content. Several major shifts affected the gay porn industry: the advent of home video when anyone could purchase a movie to view in private; the AIDS pandemic, which compelled models to be extremely healthy-looking and caused safer sex depictions to become the standard on-screen; and the emergence of the Internet allowing live streaming, social networking and amateur pornography to change how stars  are discovered, marketed and even viewed as the films do not have to be copied, packaged and delivered, although those options remain. The list includes male actors in gay pornographic films who may be notable for their gay pornography and those who may be notable for other reasons or both. The listing is alphabetic by first name. Some performers have many pseudonyms and stage names (indicated here by "a.k.a."). Multiple pseudonyms are utilized for a variety of reasons including legal constraints, the appearance of having more actors working at a studio, an actor's wishing to disguise how many films  he is working on or that he is doing work for another studio, etc. The men listed here are known to have appeared in a gay porn film; however, this does not necessarily mean they are gay—see gay-for-pay. Many of these men have also appeared in other forms of pornography, such as pornographic magazines. They may have appeared in other genres of pornography, including bisexual and heterosexual porn. This list does not include performers who have appeared in other forms of pornography unless they have also appeared in a gay porn film. Many of these performers have  been recognized with annual awards in various categories from "Best actor" to "Best top", "Best versatile performer" and even "Best non-sexual performance". There are also international porn awards as well as discontinued awards that apply to many of these performers and actors. With the increasing use of the Internet for live-streaming of movies and video clips, as well as the use of social-networking websites and blogs, amateur porn and niche genres have increasingly competed against the major gay pornography film companies.