Nina Hartley

Nina Hartley — Biography & Career

Marie Louise Hartman, known professionally as Nina Hartley, is an American adult film performer and sex educator. Born in 1959, she studied nursing at San Francisco State University, graduating magna cum laude in 1985 with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. While still in school, she began working as a stripper in 1982 at the Sutter Cinema and later the Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre.

Hartley made her screen debut in Educating Nina in 1984, cast and directed by Juliet Anderson. In the 1980s and early 1990s, she appeared in several Debbie Does Dallas spin-offs and spent years touring the United States and Canada for personal appearances. She directed her first film, Nina Hartley's Book of Love, in 1992, later produced and starred in instructional videos for Adam & Eve, and launched the Nina Hartley's Guide series in 1994.

Her work outside adult film includes roles in the 1996 Canadian feature Bubbles Galore and the 1997 drama Boogie Nights, as well as appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show and The Phil Donahue Show and in the documentary Traci Lords: The E! True Hollywood Story. By 2017, she had appeared in more than 1,000 adult films.

Beyond performance, Hartley has worked in advocacy and publishing. She was elected to the board of the Free Speech Coalition in 1995, became a long-time board member of the Woodhull Freedom Foundation, and has lectured at Dartmouth College, Harvard University, and the University of California. She has also contributed essays to multiple anthologies and co-authored a guide in 2006. Her honors include the Free Speech Coalition Lifetime Achievement Award and its Leadership Award in 2014, XRCO Hall of Fame induction in 1996, and XBIZ Awards in 2017, 2019, and 2020.

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

Michael Dorausch from Venice, USA — Nina Hartley AEE 2013 (cropped). Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. Display size and framing may be adjusted; the photograph remains available under the linked license.