Daniels was born on March 17, 1979 to Sheila and Bill Gregory, who divorced about 3 or 4 years later. Daniels was subsequently raised by her mother.

She attended Scotlandville Magnet High School in Baton Rouge, graduating in 1997. She considered becoming a Journalist.

Daniels worked answering phones at a stable during high school. Daniels' first experience stripping happened when she was 17, visiting a friend at a strip club, when she was convinced to perform a "guest set." She began stripping for work at the Gold Club in Baton Rouge, and became a feature entertainer with Continental Theatrical Agency in September 2000. She chose her stage name to reflect her love of Mötley Crüe, whose Bassist, Nikki Sixx, named his daughter Storm. As she is from Louisiana, she chose the last name "Daniels" after seeing a Jack Daniel's advertisement that read "a Southern favorite".

Daniels appeared in an episode of Real Sex where she is seen participating in 2001 Miss Nude Great Plains Contest. In early 2007, she appeared in Dirt on the FX Network, where she played a stripper who helps to set up a basketball player played by Rick Fox. Later in 2007, Daniels appeared in Maroon 5's music video for their song "Wake Up Call" as a pole Dancer. She appears in the film The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), when the main character (Steve Carell) watches her in the video Space Nuts: Episode 69—Unholy Union and then tries dreaming about her. She appears in the film Knocked Up (2007) as a lap Dancer.

In July 2002, Daniels was cast as the lead in a feature film for Wicked Pictures, Heat, where she did her first lesbian scene. In September that year, she signed an exclusive contract with Wicked. In 2004, she won the Best New Starlet Award from Adult Video News, which was a complete surprise to Daniels, as she was so sure Jesse Jane would win she made a $500 bet with another porn starlet. She has directed for Wicked since 2004.

Daniels was previously married to fellow porn actors Pat Myne (2003–2005) and Michael Mosny (screen name Mike Moz, 2007–2009). Daniels married Glendon Crain (screen name Brendon Miller) in 2010; their daughter was born January 2011.

A group of fans attempted to recruit Daniels to run against Republican Senator David Vitter in Louisiana in 2010. The recruitment process was centered around the website DraftStormy.com. On May 21, 2009, she formed an exploratory committee, initially inspired by revelations about "Vitter's connections to a prostitution ring". In August 2009, her campaign manager's car was blown up, although no one was in the car at that time.

She made several listening tours around Louisiana to focus on the economy, as well as women in Business and child protection and stated that if elected, she would likely retire from the adult industry. She announced on April 15, 2010, that she would not be running for Senate, saying she could not afford a run for the Senate seat and stating that the media never took her candidacy seriously.

While working as a feature entertainer, Daniels met Devon Michaels, who was doing lesbian scenes in a pair of upcoming films – one for Wicked Pictures and one for Sin City – and Michaels invited Daniels to accompany her. Daniels accompanied Michaels to her Wicked shoot, where she met Brad Armstrong and co-starred with Michaels in her Sin City scene, American Girls Part 2. Afterwards, Armstrong invited Daniels to stay with him and she continued doing lesbian-only scenes.

Daniels was inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame on January 18, 2014, and was inducted into the XRCO Hall of Fame on April 16, 2014. Her directorial work that year earned fourteen AVN Award nominations including a nomination for Best Safe Sex Scene for her performance with Brendon Miller in François Clousot's First Crush.

On April 9, 2018, FBI agents raided Cohen's office and seized emails, tax documents and Business records relating to several matters, including payments to Daniels.