After high school Roberts went to college in Utah for fashion and design, but quit after 2 years and took a job in retail management in Los Angeles, California. It was during this time that she met Dayton, another pornstar and through her learned about the adult business. Roberts met her at the Key Club in Hollywood, which was well known by the locals for its live music. Dayton worked as a contract star for Vivid Entertainment and took Roberts in to meet with an executive of the firm. Because Vivid had been bought out by Hustler Entertainment, they told her that they weren't interested. Dayton introduced her to some other friends, and through those introductions she was able to get work with the porn producers at Metro Interactive. In late 2000 and early 2001 she made three movies for them, Wild Cherries, All Teens Love Cum 1 and All Fucked Up, but she was not happy with the quality of the movies or her working conditions. As a result, she almost quit the adult business altogether. Roberts met former pornstar Jill Kelly, who had just started her own movie studio and was looking for new talent, and Kelly hired her for a role in her new movie Immortal, starring alongside Devon and long time industry veteran Asia Carrera. This was the first time Roberts met Devon and they formed a friendship that would eventually become a business partnership with Roberts's own company. After working for Jill Kelly, Roberts did some movies for other companies such as Odyssey, Evil Angel and Digital Sin. In 2002, she secured a two-year deal with VCA Pictures. The deal wasn't successful financially, and, within a few months she wanted out. A friend of hers suggested she give Vivid another try. Roberts got out of her contract with VCA and signed a two-year contract with Vivid that included six movies a year. Her first three films for Vivid won her critical acclaim, all gaining the highest reviewer ratings, including Most Beautiful Girl in the World, Unlovable, and Dual Identity. Marey Carey told AVN in January 2008 that she planned to include Tawny in a movie with Krystal Steal and other friends of hers, tentatively titledThe Adventures of Mary and Krystal. Roberts retired from the adult industry around that time and moved to New York with her husband David O'Conner.
Personal life
Tawny Roberts is married to David O'Conner. She gave birth to her first child in mid-December 2006. Roberts is known to have engaged in lesbian encounters offscreen. Fellow porn starGina Lynn once said "Tawny is the only girl in the industry that I play around with outside of work". Mary Carey once said that Roberts had her heart broken by "a guy named Rich". Rick Patrick, a male pornstar, was Tawny's boyfriend for many years and husband for an unspecified number of years, appearing on screen together numerous times before Rick apparently left Roberts for pornstar Jesse Jane, whom he married in 2005 and later divorced in 2012.
