Birthdate: June 17, 1966 (1966-06-17)
Birth location: Pasadena, California, United States
Birth name: Melissa Bardizbanian
Measurements: 36DD-24-36
Height: 5 ft 7 in (1.7 m)
Weight: 130 lb (59 kg)
Eye colour: Brown
Hair colour: Brown
Natural bust: Yes
Orientation: Bisexual
Ethnicity: Armenian American
Italian American

Nina Hartley (born Marie Louise Hartman on March 11, 1959 in Berkeley, California) is an American pornographic actress, pornographic film director and sex educator.

Hartley was born to a socialist Jewish family and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. She attended San Francisco State University's undergraduate nursing school and graduated magna cum laude in 1985. She is a registered nurse.

In 1982, during her sophomore year of nursing school, she started working as a stripper at Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theater.

She made her foray into the world of pornographic movies during her junior year, in 1984. Her debut performance was in the film Educating Nina which was produced by the veteran porn star Juliet Anderson (better known as Aunt Peg), and this proved to be a massive hit. Since then she has gone on to feature in over 400 first-run adult films, and has become one of the most enduring and recognizable performers in the industry.

She said in an interview that she chose the name "Nina" because it was easy for Japanese tourists to say during the time she was a dancer in San Francisco. She chose "Hartley" because she liked the popular camera commercials Mariette Hartley was making with James Garner at the time.

She is best known within the adult film industry for her "bubble butt" (often referred to as the "best ass in the business") and anal sex scenes, her interracial scenes, and her lesbian scenes.

Politically, Hartley is a socialist and outspoken sex-positive feminist. Addressing other women, she said "Sex isn't something men do to you. It isn't something men get out of you. Sex is something you dive into with gusto and like it every bit as much as he does." Hartley has been an advocate for the adult film industry's right to exist, and, prior to the rise to stardom of Jenna Jameson, had often been called upon when television news programs and talk shows required an articulate, leading adult film actress to support the pro side. She appeared most notably on The Oprah Winfrey Show with fellow porn actress Ona Zee. The two came under hard scrutiny from the mostly female audience, but refused to back down and were outspoken in their support of the industry. She and Ona Zee also spoke out strongly against illegal drugs in the industry.

She was interviewed for Wendy McElroy's 1995 book XXX: A Woman's Right to Pornography. She relates how she was arrested in 1993 in Las Vegas along with 10 other adult stars (later known as the "Erotic Eleven") for having performed a lesbian show at an adult video industry fund raiser; an undercover police officer was present in the audience. Threatened with 6 to 12 years in prison for felony lesbianism and pandering, she was eventually allowed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor.

In addition to her more traditional roles in porn films, she has also produced, directed, and starred in a series of Guide to... films covering the entire sexual spectrum, from basic sexual intercourse and foreplay, to anal intercourse and bondage.

Hartley crossed over into mainstream Hollywood with an appearance in the 1997 film Boogie Nights in which she played William H. Macy's serially unfaithful wife. She also appeared in the 1996 Canadian film, Bubbles Galore.

Hartley is openly bisexual in her private life, and had what has been described as the longest stable relationship in the adult business, living in a ménage à trois with her husband Dave (whom she met when she was 19), and "wife" Bobby Lilly for 20 years. Hartley has since left that relationship, saying "I was too immature and he was too possessive. It didn't work... It ended up ending because it was the wrong three people involved." She has since married Ira Levine (aka Ernest Greene), a director of porn films, paricularly BDSM films. They sometimes work together, as in The Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women, directed by Tristan Taormino and Greene, and O: the Power of Submission, directed by Greene. In both of these films, Hartley plays secondary but nontrivial roles.

Porn actor Lexington Steele stated in an interview in 2001 that sex with Nina Hartley was undoubtedly the best sex he has ever had.

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