Mia Khalifa is an adult film star from Beiruit, Lebanon. Among the most popular adult film actors in the world, Khalifa has also been at the center of various controversies due to her nationality and her social media presence.

Adult Film Career

In 2014, she entered the adult film business, where she quickly stirred controversy for appearing on screen in hijab. That December, she ranked as the #1 porn star on the website Pornhub. ^[1] However, she left the business after three months.

Direct Messages with Athletes

Since her rise to public prominence, Khalifa has had numerous contact with professional athletes and has developed a reputation for sharing the direct messages they send to her on Twitter.

On July 12th, 2015, she tweeted^[3] the exchange between her and the NFL's Duke Williams, who messaged her many times, asking her to meet him. She captioned the image of the DMs, "Warning: Trespassers in my DM's will be shot and hung out to dry in public." The tweet (shown below) received more than 2,500 retweets and 4,000 likes in two years.

The following year, on October 15th, 2016, she tweeted,^[4] "YO, @OleMissFB, come get your man 🙄. Underneath the caption, she included a screen shot of the messages NFL player Chad Kelly sent her. The tweet (shown below, left) received more than 2,500 retweets and 5,200 likes in one year. On October 17th, Barstool Sports^[5] published an article on the reaction to the tweets.

The following year, on September 5th, she shared the DMs from Willson Contrereas, professional baseball player for the Chicago Cubs. She captioned the tweet,^[6] "Cubbies, your man's is wandering around left field. Can you come get him? @Cubs" The post (shown below, right) received ore than 11,000 retweets and 31,000 likes in less than two months. That day, Deadspin^[7] published an article about Contreras' DMs.

On October 24th, 2017, Khalifa tweeted at JuJu Smith-Schuster, a Pittsburg Steelers received, who had his bike stolen that week. She said, "You are my new favorite follow on Twitter 😭 @TeamJuJu #TeamFindJujusBike" The tweet (shown below, left) received more than 480 retweets and 2,000 likes in 24 hours.

That day, Smith-Schuester responded on Twitter,^[8] "Oh hell nah, I’m not fallin for this lol. I’m young not stupid 😂😂😂" The post (shown below, right) received more than 70,000 retweets and 174,000 likes in less than two days.

Later that day, Smith-Schuester shared a gif of a football player kicking another player in a game with his face and Khalifa's face superimposed over the players. The post (shown below) received more than 19,000 retweets and 46,000 likes in less than 24 hours.

Several media outlets covered their exchange, including Maxim^[9] and Sports Illustrated^[10]. Twitter^[11] published a Moments page about their exchange, archiving the tweets and response.

Out of Bounds

On October 16th, 2017, Complex Media launched a new sports commentary series^[12] entitled Out of Bounds on their YouTube channel. Khalifa hosts the series along with former NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas.

On being hired to the show,^[10] she said, "I am thankful to Complex for the opportunity and to Gilbert for being a part of it. I can’t wait to offend and upset a whole new fan base."

Death Threats

The sudden publicity of being one of the world's most popular porn stars caused some in the Muslim community to criticize her for wearing a hijab in her scenes. On January 3rd, 2015, the Lebanese news site Lebanese Examiner^[2] reported that Beirut-based newspapers had written articles criticizing Khalifa for wearing a hijab during sex scenes, leading Khalifa to tweet^[4] “Doesn’t the Middle East have more important things to worry about?” (shown below). In one week, the tweet garnered more than 1,200 retweets and 1,000 favorites.

Over the next week, Khalifa was the subject of various death threats on Twitter. In most cases, these threats included references to terror caused by groups such as ISIS (examples below).

Born in 1993 in Beiruit, Lebanon, Mia Khalifa moved with her family to the United States at age 10.

She has said in interviews that she has no contact with her parents due to her career choice.^[13] She further explained that while most parents adjust after a few weeks,^[14] her parents have not adjusted because of large public outcry in their home country and her Arabic tattoos of their country's national anthem visible in her adult videos.^[15][16]