After high school she went to college in Utah for fashion and design but quit after 2 years and took a job in retail management in Los Angeles, California. It was during this time that she met Dayton, another pornstar and through her learned about the adult business. Roberts met her at the Key Club in Hollywood, which was well-known by the locals for its live music. Dayton worked as a contract star for Vivid Entertainment and took Roberts in to meet with an executive of the firm. Because Vivid's company was bought out by Hustler Entertainment, they told her that they weren't interested. Dayton then introduced her to some other friends, and through those introductions she was able to get work with the porn producers at Metro Interactive. In late-2000 and early-2001 she worked for them in three movies, Wild Cherries, All Teens Love Cum 1 and All Fucked Up, but she was not happy with the quality of the movies or her working conditions and as a result almost quit the adult business altogether.

She met former pornstar Jill Kelly who had just started her own movie studio and was looking for new talent, and Kelly hired her for a role in her new movie Immorta, starring alongside Devon who had recently left Vivid as well and longtime industry veteran, Asia Carrera. This was the first time Roberts met Devon and they formed a friendship that would eventually even blossom into a business partnership with Roberts's own company.

After working for Jill Kelly, Roberts also did some movies for other companies such as Odyssey, Evil Angel and Digital Sin. In 2002 she secured a two-year deal with VCA Pictures. The deal didn't work out as it wasn't overly lucrative and within a few months she wanted out. A friend of hers suggested she give Vivid another try. Roberts got out of her contract with VCA and signed a two-year contract with Vivid that included 6 movies a year.⁴ Her first three films for Vivid won her critical acclaim, all gaining the highest reviewer ratings, including Most Beautiful Girl in the World, Unlovable and Dual Identity.

Roberts is known to have engaged in lesbian encounters offscreen; fellow porn star Gina Lynn once said “Tawny is the only girl in the industry that I play around with outside of work”. As well Mary Carey once said that Roberts had her heart broken by “a guy named Rich”. Rick Patrick was Tawny's boyfriend for many years appearing on screen together numerous times before Rick left Tawny for porn star Jesse Jane whom he married.[citation needed]

Roberts retired from film at around the same time and moved to New York with her husband David (DOC) O'Conner and gave birth to her first child in mid-December 2006. Best man was Howard Silverman.

Mary Carey told AVN in January 2008 that she plans to include Tawny in a movie with Krystal Steal and other friends of hers, tentatively titled The Adventures of Mary and Krystal.