Belladonna

Belladonna — Biography & Career

Michelle Sinclair, known professionally as Belladonna, is an American former adult film performer, director, producer, and model. She began performing in Los Angeles at age 18 and went on to appear in more than 300 films. In 2002, she was featured in Fashionistas, and across her performance career she worked with directors including John Stagliano, Nacho Vidal, Jules Jordan, and Rocco Siffredi. Her work also extended into television and documentary projects. ABC Television followed her career for two years, leading to a January 2003 interview on Primetime with Diane Sawyer. She appeared several times on the reality series Family Business. In 2004, photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders included her in the book XXX: 30 Porn-Star Portraits, and she also appeared in the HBO documentary Thinking XXX, which documented the making of the project. During the 2000s, Belladonna built a parallel career behind the camera. Her awards included AVN honors in 2003 for Best Supporting Actress (Film) and Best Tease Performance, and in 2008 for Best Director (Non-Feature). She also received XRCO awards in 2003 for Best Single Performance (Actress) and Female Performer of the Year, an XBIZ Award in 2009 for Director (Body of Work), and AVN Hall of Fame recognition in 2011, followed by XRCO Hall of Fame recognition in 2013. CNBC named her one of the 12 most popular stars in porn in 2011, noting that she had received 42 AVN Award nominations and won 10 AVN Awards. After announcing her retirement from pornography in 2012, Sinclair moved into mainstream screen work. She made her non-pornographic feature film debut in The Ladies of the House in 2014, appeared in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice the same year, and later appeared in the 2018 short film Dream Murder Machine.

Source: Career reference — Wikipedia. Career summary adapted from the linked article under CC BY-SA 4.0; wording and selection have been edited.

Photo credit

© Glenn Francis, www.PacificProDigital.com — Belladonna 2010. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Display size and framing may be adjusted; the photograph remains available under the linked license.