Erica Boyer was born Amanda Margaret Gantt on December 22, 1956 in Andalusia, Alabama. Boyer moved to San Francisco, California in the late 1970's and began her career in the adult entertainment industry dancing and doing live sex shows at the O'Farrell Theater. Erica caught the attention of Marilyn Chambers, who encouraged Erica to make her hardcore movie debut in Beyond De Sade (1979). Boyer's adult film career subsequently took off after this; she did well over one hundred and fifty movies over the course of two decades.

Boyer took a hiatus from the adult film industry in 1994, but made a brief comeback in the late 1990's prior to retiring from the adult film industry on a permanent basis and settling down in Panama City Beach, Florida. In the wake of her retirement Erica started her own massage therapy business as well as did volunteer work as both a clown and face painter. She was inducted into both the AVN and XRCO Hall of Fame. Boyer was married twice and was the mother of a son, Davis. Erica's life came to a tragic abrupt end when she was struck and killed by an off-duty Florida Highway Patrol Officer December 31, 2009 in Panama City Beach, Florida; she was 53 years old.