Should an adult creator sign contracts personally or through an LLC?

LLC for contracts, yes. But make sure the LLC actually has its own bank account and you're not treating it like a piggy bank. Piercing the veil is real and it usually happens because someone mixed personal and business funds.

short answer: LLC doesn't stop someone from suing you personally if they name you too. it just gives your lawyer something to argue about. long answer: talk to an attorney in your state, because "adult creator" changes the calculus depending on where you are.

I've been signing through my LLC for about three years now. For brand deals, and collab releases, it's fine. For anything that requires a personal guarantee (some payment processors, some landlords), it doesn't matter what entity you use — they'll want your SSN and signature anyway. So the protection is partial at best

Also matters whether your state actually respects single-member LLCs in the way you tink. And if you're in CA or NY it's a different flavor of headaches. This isn't legal advice, obviously.

That's the thing i keep hitting — payment processors want my personal info no matter what. So the LLC feels like it's protecting the contract but not the person signing it.

Bank account separation is non-negotiable. If you're going to do it, do it properly or don't bother. Also keep meeting minutes if your state requires them. Boring, but it's what makes the paperwork mean anything.

One other angle nobody mentioned: contracts with performers. If you're using an LLC, the release agreement should say the LLC is the producer, not you personally. Otherwise you've just added a layer that does nothing for the part of the business where conflicts actually happen.

Honestly,half the people I know in this space use an LLC mostly for tax and banking reasons, and the privacy/liability benefit is a nice side effect they hope works. Whether it works is a question for a lawyer, not a forum.