Grooby

What Grooby Is

Grooby describes itself as a company "founded in 1996 and based in Los Angeles, CA, producing transgender online adult entertainment." It pays performers to shoot for its own websites, so this is a studio that hires models, not a platform where a creator builds and sells to their own audience. It recruits "trans female models worldwide" through an online application, and it prints its pay rates on the application page itself, before anyone applies.

The rates are flat fees per shoot, and the studio says it pays them "across North America." The menu that leads to the model application also lists a photographers page and an affiliate program under a "Work With Us" heading, so the company has more than one route for people who work with it. Shoot work for trans women is the one its application page explains in detail.

How Earning Works Here

Shoot work for Grooby's sites. A model applies, is accepted and is booked for a shoot, then paid a flat rate when the shoot is done. The application page names two tiers of site, "Main Sites" and "Femout.XXX," and gives a rate for each type of shoot on each; the figures are in the next section. A solo shoot is defined on the page as 2 sets of solo images with matching video, and the other shoot type is hardcore.

Where the work goes. The content is produced for the company's own distribution rather than sold through a profile the model manages. The homepage describes Grooby as the owner of "a number of transsexual adult websites" that also produces "its own DVD line" and has "other interests in forums, blogs and social networking within the transsexual niche genre." Its website list is long and niche by niche: sites built around Asian, Black, Brazilian, Canadian, European, UK, Russian and Japanese performers, BBW and TGirl 40 sites, VR and POV sites, a domination site, a feet site, a casting site and an archive, alongside Grooby Girls and the Grooby.Club multisite pass. The store side covers a DVD line, Grooby VOD, Grooby On Demand and merchandise. For a model, a shoot is made for one of those sites rather than for a channel of her own.

How Grooby presents its models. The homepage runs a "Featured Grooby Girls" feed of new scenes and a "30 for 30" series introducing individual models one post at a time. That is the company promoting its own content, not a channel a model controls, but it shows that models are put forward by name on the company's news pages.

The application. The form asks for a stage name, legal name, date of birth, email, location (city and state, or country), ethnicity from a list, a Twitter username, a phone number, "Likes and Preferences," how long the applicant has been on HRT (the options are not on it, under 12 months, 1-3 years, and more than three years) and who referred the applicant, plus a free-text "Additional Info" box. It takes up to 6 photos, which "need to include a full length nude, face pics and should have no filters or retouching whatsoever." The page promises that "all information will be treated as confidential and your submitted photos will not be used without your express permission." By sending the form, the applicant confirms being over 18 and having read the Code of Conduct, and the page prints "READ OUR CODE OF CONDUCT BEFORE APPLYING!" in capitals.

Who is wanted. The same page says that male models, cis or trans, are "NOT REQUIRED at present," while its rate list still carries a line for cis-male performers. The stated recruiting call is for trans women.

Other routes. The "Work With Us" group links Model Application, Photographers, Affiliate Program, Existing Models Form, Model DMCA Agreement and Code of Conduct. For photographers, the news feed carries a recent call headed "Asian TGirl Photographers Wanted," so the company recruits shooters as well as models. For affiliates, the same menu lists an Affiliate Program beside the company's network of paysites; the homepage and application page do not print its commission terms. Models who have already shot for the company have their own Existing Models Form.

Standing in the niche. The About text says the company "established itself as one of the pioneer companies of online adult transgender entertainment" with its first site, now renamed Grooby Girls, which it calls "the first transsexual pay site with original content." It quotes AVN Business as saying the company "has established itself among the Net's foremost purveyors of transgender erotica." Those are the company's own claims and its own choice of quote. Grooby also runs the Transgender Erotica Awards, The TEAs, which the page says were "originally conceived in 2007" as an online competition voted by a panel of industry judges, with Grooby sponsoring all of the cash prizes at first. They grew into live events at nightlife venues in the Los Angeles area and then a full-scale theater in Glendale, and now have "over twenty categories, including special awards sponsored by other industry companies, many of which include donated cash prizes." For a model, the awards are an industry stage the company runs, not a payment.

Money and Rules

The application page sets out pay under the heading "Model Payment Information," saying that "in an effort to be as transparent as possible, we're happy to inform you of our pay rates in advance of applying." It continues: "We pay a flat rate to Grooby Models across North America." Payment "will be paid at the completion of the shoot when all necessary paperwork and IDs are present." The model is a flat fee per shoot, not a revenue share, and the page ties payment to the completed shoot with the paperwork and IDs in place.

The rate list has a line for solo and for hardcore shoots on each of the two site tiers, plus a line for cis-male performers. As of October 2026 it runs from $500 for a solo shoot on Femout.XXX to $1000 for a hardcore shoot on the Main Sites, with a solo shoot on the Main Sites "starting at $600." The Femout.XXX hardcore rate sits between the two ends. The Main Sites solo rate and the cis-male rate are both worded as minimums, so those two are floors. The page does not say how the money is handed over, whether in cash, by check or by transfer.

The flat rates are stated for North America, while the recruiting call is worldwide.

On records, the homepage footer says "all images on this site are original content or licensed material," that "we hold model releases and ID's for every model" and that the site is "18 USC U2257 Compliant." Age and ID are part of the process at both ends: the applicant confirms she is over 18 on the form, and payment waits until IDs and paperwork are present at the shoot. The footer also warns that misuse or copyright infringement of its images "will be met by criminal and civil litigations." A Model DMCA Agreement sits in the models' menu beside the Code of Conduct.

Who It Suits and Who It Does Not

Grooby suits a trans woman in North America who wants paid studio work with the rate known before she applies, paid in one go at the end of the shoot. A model who would rather take a flat fee per scene than build a subscription audience finds that structure here, and the spread of niche sites widens where a scene can be placed. The HRT question and the instruction to send unretouched photos show the studio wants to see applicants as they are; someone uncomfortable sending full-length nude photos should read the confidentiality line first and decide.

It is a poor fit for a creator who wants to sell directly to fans, set her own prices or control how her content is distributed, since the work is shoots for Grooby's sites. Men, cis or trans, are told they are not needed at present. A model outside North America has no published rate to plan around, which is the limitation to weigh most. Affiliates and photographers have a route here too, with terms set on those programs' own pages.