Initially trained in music, dance, and art in New York, with studies at the High School of Art and Design, Parson's School of Design and the City University of New York[, she eventually entered a career as a porn star, acting in some 25 movies.

In 1980 she founded Femme Productions, with the goal of making erotica based on female desire. Her productions are aimed more to women and couples than to the standard pornographic audience of men, and they have been praised by therapists for portraying in general a more realistic and emotional picture of sex. Her company has been very successful, producing a series of products known to have a more artistic touch, lacking some aspects of common porn, like a focus on male ejaculation. She described her approach to film-making in an interview in Wendy McElroy 1995 book XXX: A Woman's Right to Pornography.

Royalle is also a member of American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors and Therapists, and founding board-member of Feminists for Free Expression. She recently made her mission of women's sexual empowerment multi-cultural by executive producing the independent film Afrodite Superstar directed by African American director, Venus Hottentot, a breakthrough film nominated for seven AVN Awards in 2007. Royalle is credited with also directing the explicit sex scenes, one of which features her Natural Contours products.