Joanna Storm was born in San Diego, California. Storm was initially raised by foster parents who adopted her when she was four days old. Joanna's adoptive mother died when she was only five years old and Storm grew up in a variety of different families throughout her tumultuous childhood. Joanna left home at age thirteen and spent the bulk of her teenage years growing up on the streets. During this time Storm also made angel dust, sold marijuana to sailors on the pier, and even transported machine guns across the Mexican border. Joana married a seventeen-year-old man at age fifteen. After her husband got arrested and sent to prison, Storm went off to Cody, Wyoming and got a job as a bartender prior to moving again to Texas where she worked at a bar called The Water Hole.

Joanna eventually moved a third time to Houston, Texas and got a job at a bar where she first started dancing. Storm not only worked the dance circuit in such states as Texas, Alaska, and Washington, but also was briefly involved with a nude magic act in Las Vegas, Nevada. Joanna eventually returned to San Diego in the early 1980's and became involved with the adult film industry after a San Diego club owner set her up for a porn movie audition in Los Angeles. Storm went on to perform in explicit X-rated features and posed for assorted men's magazine layouts. Moreover, Joanna moved to New York where she worked as a feature dancer on 42nd Street as well as continued to perform in hardcore films. In the wake of retiring from porn circa 1987, Storm moved to New Mexico and worked as a substitute teacher at a public school and a graveyard shift gig loading newspapers onto trucks as well as sold mobile homes and life insurance before resuming her previous career as a feature dancer once again and making a short-lived comeback in the porn industry in the late 2000's. Joanna has since retired from the porn industry and now lives in an artistic community. Storm has three daughters and a grandson.