On-camera, Men.com exclusive performer Dom King is a confident, commanding power top. Off-camera, the contrast is immediately noticeable. Sitting casually in front of a large lion photograph — a nod to his ‘civilian’ name, Andrew Lyon — he’s warm, conversational, and grounded.
“Dom King’s the porn star,” he confides. “Andrew is the housewife at home cooking and playing with his cats.”
He describes that balance as intentional, a way of maintaining space between his public persona and his private life.
“I call it my ‘Hanna Montana’ life,” he explains. “When I’m home, I’m pretty domesticated, living my ‘Real Housewife’ life… without a man. I’m just at home vacuuming, working on my yard, and doing the dishes. When I travel or go to the bar, I get to be this character: Dom King. It’s like the best of both worlds.”
Speaking with King, it’s quickly apparent that his friendly, welcoming nature is no pretense. He is simply very comfortable with who he is. So while many performers keep their personal and professional identities rigidly separated, King has always leaned toward transparency.
“I’ve had my Twitter since 2009,” he says. “People can do deep dives on me, learn more about me. You can see my development from college. I had a girlfriend, then she was out of the picture. Then you can see me coming out — because I’m wearing more speedos!”
“My Instagram is in my real name because I didn’t want Dom King to become my whole personality, my whole image,” he confides. “Sometimes Dom King can be a douche, tool persona. But me growing up in the Midwest and having a normal upbringing — people are able to relate to that more. They can see that I’m a real person, not just a shirtless guy having sex.”
Midwestern Boy With a Secret
King was born and raised in Dearborn, Michigan, just outside Detroit. He’s never felt compelled to leave, despite working in an industry largely centered in Los Angeles.
“Why would I want to live in a city where everyone is trying to do the same thing as me?” he laughs. “I like being here doing what I do because I’m really the only one who does it. If I go out somewhere, people are interested to talk to me and know more about the industry. If I lived in LA, they’d be like, ‘Ugh, another actor.’”
Despite what he calls a ‘typical Midwestern upbringing,’ King says growing up in a culturally diverse city shaped much of his worldview.
“We have a really big Muslim population, and Detroit has a large Black population,” he notes. “So I grew up more exposed to other cultures.”
His family also spent a lot of time in Jamaica, where King’s father hails from.
“My granddad still lives there,” he says. “Growing up, that was like Florida to us. We’d visit a lot.”
King recalls being a highly energetic kid.
“I was very outgoing and involved in everything,” he recalls. “I’m an Eagle Scout, I was class president, I was in every afterschool extracurricular you could do.”
There were some things he was less outgoing about, though.
“The signs were all there that I was gay,” he says. “But like a chameleon will change its spots to survive, at a young age I observed the people around me — how they walked, how they talked, and where that got them.”
King stayed closeted through much of his adolescence and into his college years, even maintaining a long-term relationship with a girlfriend.
“I was just living in denial,” he admits. “After two years, when we broke up, I finally came out.”
Years after the breakup, in 2020, King wrote a letter to his ex, finally coming out to her.
“I felt like she needed to hear it from me,” he says. “Then I was able to read it to my family, telling them my story in a way where they weren’t involved, so they couldn’t be the victim or feel defensive. For years, it had been something we never really talked about, until I was able to read that letter and share my true emotions.”
‘What if…?’
King’s first close encounter with the adult industry was not what you might expect.
“I got sued for illegally downloading ‘Batman XXX’ off a torrent website,” he confesses sheepishly. “This was in college, so my parents were served with papers — on Christmas Day.
“I’m so happy it was ‘Batman XXX,’ though, because of the number of times I had to hear my father and his lawyer say the title,” he laughs. “The whole time I was like, ‘Can you just say “the movie”?!’”
Fortunately, the experience did not deter him from imagining a career in porn, though he initially saw himself behind the camera rather than in front of it. Even as he followed a more traditional path — college, a “normal” job track, the expected milestones — the idea never quite left him. It hovered in the back of his mind as a “What if…?”
Then one day, that curiosity turned into something more concrete.
“When the opportunity came, I thought, ‘I’m going to take it because I never want to regret not doing it,’” King remembers.
The shift represented a turning point in his day-to-day life.
“It’s definitely been a reset for me,” he affirms. “I was that millennial living paycheck to paycheck. Porn has given me financial stability.”
King also appreciates making the new connections his career and online interactions facilitate.
“I like talking to people,” he says. “Anyone who talks to me, I’m going to have a conversation — not just a ‘Hi, bye.’”
Getting ‘Real’
Among his fans, King is especially known for his improv-style delivery and ability to make a scene feel alive — and for his unironic love of reality TV.
“If I get on TikTok Live, it’s crazy the amount of questions I get asked,” he says. “People are always asking me to comment on things going on in pop culture and on TV, like ‘Real Housewives’ going to jail.”
He even co-wrote a takeoff on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” drawing on one of the franchise’s most infamous moments.
“We did a parody of the Amsterdam dinner with Lisa Rinna and Kim Richards,” he explains. “I had a blast with that one. I was able to mix my love for ‘Real Housewives’ and porn. I was so excited for it to be released. I was counting down the days.
“Me as Lisa Rinna — that’s real acting,” he declares. “I was yelling. I broke a glass!”
Being Dom King has even led to the opportunity to work with a few ‘Real Housewives.’
“I did a party with Teresa Giudice from ‘The Real Housewives of New Jersey,’” he says proudly. “That went really well. I’ve also been invited to a recording of ‘Watch What Happens Live.’”
A Matter of Pride
King’s on-camera persona is all big energy and big presence. When he’s at home, however? It’s all about his cats.
“I love the felines,” he says simply. “I have a lot of decor that’s all about that. The No. 1 question I get asked is if I’m a Leo, because there are lions everywhere. My world revolves around my two little lions in my pride. I grind so my cats can live their most luxurious lives.”
Their names are Nala, after the “Lion King” character, and Parker — a name he once imagined giving a future son, before deciding it belonged to his feline family instead. The furry duo are prominent on King’s social media, especially around the holidays. Each year, he puts together a themed Christmas card featuring them.
“I love being creative with it,” he says. “Making a memory that will last forever.”
Fans get regular glimpses of King’s various creative impulses in his stories and posts, from photography and Lego builds to the elaborate charcuterie displays he’s famous for among friends. It’s a side of him that’s not driven by clicks or views. It’s simply what he likes.
While he continues to enjoy being Dom King, he doesn’t see his porn persona as a mask he’ll wear forever. Nor is it something he’ll ever regret. Instead, he treats it as one of several chapters he’s actively writing in real time.
“I want it to be a part of me,” he says. “But not all of me.”
