Type Private Founded 1996 Key people Steven Grooby (owner) | Area served Worldwide | |
Headquarters Los Angeles, CA, United States | ||
Grooby Productions is a company founded in 1996 and based in Los Angeles, California, that produces transgender online adult entertainment. It established itself as one of the pioneer companies of online adult transgender entertainment with its website Shemale Yum, "the first transsexual pay site with original content". The company owns a number of transsexual adult websites, produces its own DVD line, and has other interests in forums, blogs and social networking in the transsexual niche genre including the Tranny Awards.
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Company history
Grooby traces its roots to websites started up in 1996 in the UK by owner Steven Grooby, a film school graduate. The most prominent of them was his transgender site Shemale Yum which became an Adult Verification site and eventually a pay site. The term "shemale" is considered pejorative by the transgender community but Grooby says that at the time the site was named he didn't know any better and the site became too well branded to change the name. Other websites followed including Ladyboy-Ladyboy in 1998 which was the first website to go to Thailand to photograph ladyboys and number of other sites featuring Brazilian, Black, Japanese and Canadian transsexuals.
For a time Grooby operated the official websites for Joey Silvera and Gia Darling, but because of creative differences these arrangements were dissolved amicably. In 2006 the company celebrated its 10-year anniversary, which included a party thrown by Allanah Starr in New York City.
In 2008 Grooby opened the SheMaleJapan.com website to focus on Japanese "newhalf" (ニューハーフ) transsexual models. The concept for the website dated back to 2000 but it took eight years to find an appropriate producer in Japan. By late 2008 the company hosted 12 websites and employed 7 full-time employees at its Los Angeles headquarters and 25 people worldwide. Grooby Productions produces over 2000 photo/video sets a year for web-only release and about 10 DVD releases. In late 2009, the company relocated its offices from Honolulu to Los Angeles.
Transgender Erotica Awards
Grooby sponsors an annual event, the Transgender Erotica Awards (TEA), held each February in Los Angeles. Citing a poor representation of transgender performers and producers in mainstream adult awards ceremonies, the annual event was created to recognize achievement in the transgender adult industry. It began as a small online-only awards show, and has since grown into a well-attended event, honoring models and performers in 21 categories and attracting attention from outside of the trans community.