Kimberly Nicole Rathkamp (born September 15, 1985) ^[42] is an American pornographic actress, who goes by the stage name Kayden Kross. ^[54]

Kross has won multiple awards for her adult film work.

Kross was born and raised in Sacramento, California. She grew up in the foothills between Sacramento and Placerville. ^[8] She is of mostly Swedish ancestry. ^[31] She has described herself as "the book nerd" during her time as a high school student. ^[22] Kross began stripping at Rick's Showgirls in Rancho Cordova, California when she was eighteen years old to earn extra money to rescue a pony from a slaughter house, which she kept for eight months. ^[35] She was later contacted by an agent, whose business relationship provided Kross with the opportunity of modeling in adult magazines. ^[43]

Her movies with Vivid included Kayden's First Time, Hard Time, and Be Here Now.

Unhappy with the company, she became a free agent one year later when she did not renew her contract.

^[22] She signed an exclusive contract with Adam & Eve after one month of being a free agent. ^[43] She was named *Penthouse * Pet of the Month for September 2008. ^[56] Kross' official website, ClubKayden.com, was launched on September 2, 2008. Kross has hosted a blog at UnKrossed.com, and has written regular updates and opinion columns for MikeSouth.com, an adult industry gossip blog, among other sites. ^[7]

Kross became exclusive to Digital Playground under a multi-year contract on January 1, 2010.

Her first movie with the company, The Smiths, topped sales charts immediately and has continued to be a best seller.

She was given the lead in their big budget feature, Body Heat, in her third month in contract.

She won two Best Actress Awards for the role.

^[23]

Kross hosted the 2010 AVN Awards show, along with porn actress Kirsten Price and comedian Dave Attell. ^[29] She was Penthouse magazine's "Cover Girl" for September 2008 and 2010. ^[51] Kross starred in the 2010 AVN Best Feature The 8th Day and portrayed the role of Elin Nordegren, wife of Tiger Woods, in Adam & Eve Pictures' film Tyler's Wood. ^[58]

In 2012, she hosted the Xbiz awards for the second time, and appeared in the ceremony alongside Wicked Pictures /Wicked.com contract star, Jessica Drake, and on the AVN red carpet with co-hosts Jesse Jane and guitarist Dave Navarro.

Kross has made appearances in the FX's comedy series ‘’The League", the G4 reality series‘’The Block", and *Family Jewels *. ^[15] In 2011 she was cast as Tara in Gregory Hatanaka's drama *Blue Dream * ^[20] In 2011, Kross briefly co-hosted a regular videocast, Kayden's Review, for Triggla TV ^{[26] [33]} alongside the comedian Dane Hanson. ^[33] From 2012 - 2013, Kross portrayed a main character in the second season of Tucky Williams' lesbian-themed web series Girl/Girl Scene. ^[41] Starting from January 2013 Kross hosts the weekly call-in show Krossfire on Playboy Radio.In 2013, Kross also appeared in the featurette "Chicks 'N Guns" on the *Breaking Bad * 5th season DVD as a stripper. The scene takes place during the season 5 episode "Gliding Over All." Kross also appeared in two music videos from the band Nekrogoblikon, "No One Survives"^[52] in 2012 and "We Need a Gimmick"^[0] in 2015.

Kross writes columns regularly for publications such as *Complex * magazine, *XBIZ * magazine, and a blog for xcritic.com. ^{[5] [21]} She has also contributed to *Timothy McSweeney's Internet Tendency *, and her short story "Plank" appeared in the 2012 short story collection *Forty Stories: New Writing from Harper Perennial *, an e-book. As of August 2012, she was writing an autobiographical book about the porn industry. ^[28]

In 2008, she was among those testifying against a proposed tax in California on all producers and distributors of adult entertainment.

^[37] In February 2012, she and conservative pundit Wendy Murphy appeared on *Stossel *, with host John Stossel, to discuss legislation in California that would require that condoms be used during the production of adult movies. ^[48]

In October 2008, Kross was charged with grand theft and violations of the California Civil Code, involving contracts for purchases of home equity mortgages, allegedly conning a disabled veteran and his family. ^{[1] [42]} In July 2009, the grand-theft charge was dismissed, and the real-estate-fraud charge was reduced to a misdemeanor; Kross pleaded no contest to the resulting charges and was sentenced to one day in custody and three years of probation. ^[42] She blamed her involvement in the situation on her naïveté and being scammed by the broker and mortgage lender. ^[42]

Kayden Kross and Manuel Ferrara have one daughter, born in January 2014. ^[42] In 2013, Ferrara asked her to no longer perform with other men. ^[54]