Flame was born in San Jose, California. While in school, she was a member of the choir, and continues to sing to this day. Her first job was a clerk at a knick-knacks shop in her local mall.
Tila had a very apprehensive start to the industry. She was attending college, but had extremely low cashflow to sustain herself. She filled out an application to appear in a video for a nationally known "party themed" porn site. However, she only appeared as an extra in the scene. She continued to do extra work for this company for months, and eventually felt comfortable enough to be a performer herself.
