Lei danced at the Olympic Garden in Las Vegas prior to her porn career.She is a former contract performer for pornographic production studio Wicked Pictures.

Outside her adult film work, she was the host of a radio show on KSEX, Me So Horny with Kaylani Lei.[9] Lei appeared on the Howard Stern radio show, and she has made appearances on Playboy TV. In 2007, she was the co star of the Cinemax series The Erotic Traveler, as "Allison Kraft" - an apprentice erotic photographer. She appeared in one episode of the 2011 series Chemistry as a Japanese businesswoman named Yokushi Shimato.