Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Rae entered the adult film industry in 1983, after being discovered by a fledgling Philadelphia talent firm, Lynx Management. The first part of her stage name, pronounced Tayzh-a, came from an Asian cocktail waitress she worked with before porn. The last name, Rae, was a tribute to Fay Wray, actress in the movie King Kong. After a test photo shoot in New York City, she quickly made the rounds of the New York adult industry and kept busy in East Coast erotic films and photo modeling, working with directors such as Henri Pachard, Chuck Vincent, and Dave Darby. Her first films were Dangerous Stuff and Scenes They Wouldn't Let Me Shoot, filmed the same weekend.