Nina Hartley

About Nina Hartley

Nina Hartley, born Marie Louise Hartman on March 11, 1959, in Berkeley, California, is an American pornographic film actress and sex educator. The youngest of four children, she was raised in a politically active, progressive household with a Jewish mother who later became a Zen Buddhist nun and a Lutheran father who was blacklisted for his communist beliefs. Her grandfather, Joseph Gelders, was a labor and civil rights activist. Hartley identified as a feminist in her teens and graduated from Berkeley High School in 1977. She attended San Francisco State University, earning a Bachelor of Science in Nursing magna cum laude in 1985, and worked as a registered nurse until her license expired in 1986.

During her sophomore year of nursing school in 1982, she began working as a stripper at the Sutter Cinema and later the Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre in San Francisco. She adopted the stage name "Nina" because it was easy for Japanese tourists to pronounce, and "Hartley" as a nod to actress Mariette Hartley. Her pornographic film debut came in 1984 with Educating Nina, produced and directed by Juliet Anderson. By 2017, she had appeared in over 1,000 adult films.

Hartley became known for her performances in films such as Debbie Duz Dishes (1986), Anal Annie (1985), and Every Woman Has a Fantasy (1984). She directed her first film in 1992, Nina Hartley's Book of Love, and launched the Nina Hartley's Guide series of educational sex videos. She crossed over into mainstream cinema with a role as William H. Macy's serially unfaithful wife in Boogie Nights (1997), and appeared in Bubbles Galore (1996), Thinking XXX (2004), and It's Not a Date (2014). She portrayed Hillary Clinton in the 2008 satirical film Who's Nailin' Paylin?.

She has been described as an outspoken feminist and advocate for sexual freedom, and has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and The Phil Donahue Show to defend the adult industry. Hartley was arrested in 1993 in Las Vegas during a lesbian performance at an industry fundraiser, later pleading guilty to a misdemeanor. She is a long-time board member of the Free Speech Coalition and the Woodhull Freedom Foundation, and has lectured at Harvard, Dartmouth, and UC Berkeley.

She was married to Dave from 1982 to 2000 in an open, three-way relationship with Bobby Lilly, which she later described as unhappy. In 2003, she married Ira Levine (Ernest Greene), a fetish film director, with whom she lives in Los Angeles in an openly polyamorous relationship. She co-authored Nina Hartley's Guide to Total Sex (2006) and How to Be Kinkier (2012).

Hartley has received numerous awards, including induction into the AVN Hall of Fame and the XRCO Hall of Fame (1996). Her AVN Awards include Best Actress – Video (1987, Debbie Duz Dishes), Best Supporting Actress – Film (1989, Portrait of an Affair), and Best Non-Sex Performance (2009, Not Bewitched XXX). She also won XRCO Awards for Female Performer of the Year (1989) and Best Girl-Girl Scene (1990). Additional honors include the Free Speech Coalition Lifetime Achievement Award (1988), Hot d'Or Lifetime Achievement Award (1996), and XBIZ Award for Best Non-Sex Acting Performance (2019, Future Darkly: Artifamily; 2020, Girls of Wrestling).

As of 2025, she remains active as a sex educator, speaker, and content creator, maintaining a presence on social media and offering educational material through her website and OnlyFans. She identifies as bisexual, a swinger, and a sex-positive feminist, and continues to advocate for performers' rights and sexual health.

Career highlights

• Age & Beauty 2
• Legendary Players
• The Golden Age of Porn: Lili Marlene
• Dirty Little Secret
• The Last Temptations of Kristi
• Breaking Mr. Hart
• Lesbian Nymphos 3
• Shadow Dancers 2