Jewel was born in 1975 in the Northern California hamlet of Placerville. After graduating from High School in California, she worked at an adult bookstore in Sacramento while planning to study theater in Los Angeles. She became interested in the adult industry and met Samantha Style. Her first film, in which her stage name was Jewel Valmont, was in 1998. She began acting as a natural brunette, but began dyeing her hair blonde in 2000.