Nina Hartley

Hartley was born in Berkeley, California,[2] to a Lutheran father and a Jewish mother (Louis Hartman and Blanche née Gelders, both deceased)[6] whose family was from Alabama.[7] She grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area.[8] She is the youngest of four children, with an older sister and two older brothers.[3] Her parents were members of the Communist Party USA[6] who converted to Buddhism when she was young.[9] Her father was blacklisted in 1957.[10] After graduating from Berkeley High School in 1977, she attended San Francisco State University's undergraduate nursing school and graduated magna cum laude in 1985. She was a registered nurse per the California Board of Registered Nursing until her license expired in 1986.[11]

Hartley in 2001

Hartley saw The Autobiography of a Flea (the first adult film directed by a woman, Sharon McNight)[12] alone, at a theater in San Francisco and chose her life work: making porn.[13][14][10]

In 1982, during her sophomore year of nursing school, she started working as a stripper at the Sutter Cinema and later the Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre.[15][8] She made her foray into the world of pornographic movies during her junior year in 1984. She started out at first in photo spreads for Hustler and High Society. Her debut performance was in the film Educating Nina, making her a protégée of Juliet Anderson.[16][17]

Explaining how Marie Louise Hartman became Nina Hartley, she stated 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; "Hartley" was chosen as it was close to her own real last name as possible and because she "wanted a name that sounded like that of a real person".[8] She stated that when she got into the adult business, she was blessed with two popular fetish items: "big, baby-blue eyes and that round butt with a high, small waist", with her buttocks becoming her trademark.[18]

In the 1980s and early 1990s, she starred in several of the Debbie Does film series spin-offs such as Debbie Duz Dishes (1986) and Debbie Does Wall Street (1991).[19]

In 1992, she directed her first movie, Nina Hartley's Book of Love.[20]

For many years, she also toured the United States and Canada as a stripper and made personal appearances at adult shops.[19][21]

In 2006, she published her first book, Nina Hartley's Guide to Total Sex.[30] She later co-authored the book series How to be Kinkier beginning in 2012.[31]

In 2010, she said, "Now I work with women who are younger than my breast implants."[32]

Hartley played the part of Hillary Clinton in the film Who's Nailin' Paylin? This was a pornographic parody of then-Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, with Lisa Ann in the role of Palin.[33][34]

Hartley was also featured in the 2012 documentary After Porn Ends, which is about life after being a porn actor.

As of 2018, Hartley has remained active in the industry.[35] Appearing primarily in "mature"-themed pornography, in 1994, she began her line of instructional videos that are marketed under the Nina Hartley's Guide brand.[21]

Hartley is openly bisexual in her private life.[36] From 1981 to 2000, Hartley was involved in a relationship with a man and a woman. She married her male partner in 1986; their divorce was finalized in 2003.[15]

In 2003, the year her divorce was finalized, she married Ira Levine, professional name Ernest Greene, a director of porn films.[37] They are openly polyamorous.[38]

• Nicolas Barbano: Verdens 25 hotteste pornostjerner (Rosinante, Denmark 1999) ISBN 87-7357-961-0; features a chapter on Hartley
• Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, Nina Hartley: XXX: 30 Porn-Star Portraits (Bulfinch, U.S. 2004) ISBN 0-8212-7754-5; features an essay and introduction by Hartley
• Nina Hartley: Nina Hartley's Guide to Total Sex (Avery, U.S. 2006) ISBN 1-58333-263-4
• Louis Marvin: The New Goddesses (AF Press, U.S. 1987): ISBN 0-912442-99-9; features a chapter on Hartley
• David McCumber: X-Raxploration of Sex from Celibacy to Polyamory and Everything in Between (2010, New World Library, ISBN 978-1-57731-910-8); features an interview with Hartley
• Morpheous: How to Be Kinkier: More Adventures in Adult Playtime (2012, Green Candy Press, ISBN 1931160945); introduction written by Hartley

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nina Hartley.

• Official website
• Nina Hartley at IMDb
• Nina Hartley at the Internet Adult Film Database
• Nina Hartley at the Adult Film Database