Nina Hartley
Marie Louise Hartman (born 1959), known professionally as Nina Hartley, is an American pornographic film actress and sex educator. She has been described by Las Vegas Weekly as an "outspoken feminist" and "advocate for sexual freedom", and by CNBC as "a legend in the adult world".
Also recorded as Nina Hartwel · Nina Hartly · Nina Hartman · Nina Hartwell
Nina Hartley

Michael Dorausch from Venice, USA · Nina Hartley - 2013 AVN Awards Uploaded by Vydra · CC BY-SA 2.0
- Name
- Nina Hartley
- Birth Name
- Marie Louise Hartman
- Born
- 1959 3
- Birthplace
- Berkeley, California, U.S.
- Education
- San Francisco State University (BSN)
- Occupation
- * Pornographic film actress
- Full name
- Marie Louise Hartman.
- Nationality
- United States
- Fields
- MILF pornography · pornographic film
- Known for
- Boogie Nights · Bubbles Galore
- Honours
- AVN Hall of Fame · XRCO Hall of Fame
- Languages
- English
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Marie Louise Hartman (born 1959), known professionally as Nina Hartley, is an American pornographic film actress and sex educator. She has been described by Las Vegas Weekly as an "outspoken feminist" and "advocate for sexual freedom", and by CNBC as "a legend in the adult world".
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Authority files
wikidata · Q234271 · wikipedia · Nina Hartley
In this article
Biography
Biography
Nina Hartley studied at San Francisco State University and Berkeley High School. The recorded working language is English. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are MILF pornography and pornographic film. Works named in the authority record are Boogie Nights and Bubbles Galore. Distinctions recorded are AVN Hall of Fame and XRCO Hall of Fame.

Nina Hartley giving opening speech at the "Free Speech Coalition Awards Annual Bash Event" - Los Angeles, CA on Nov. 14, 2009 - Photo by Glenn Francis of www.PacificProDigital.com
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jerone2 · IMG_2192 Uploaded by gohe007
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Nina Hartley • Birth Name — Marie Louise Hartman • Born — 1959 3 • Birthplace — Berkeley, California, U.S. • Education — San Francisco State University (BSN) • Occupation — * Pornographic film actress • sex educator • Other Names — * Nina Hartman • Nina Hartwell • Relatives — Marge Frantz (aunt) Joseph Gelders (grandfather) Emma Gelders Sterne (great aunt) • Website — nina.com • Mother — Blanche Hartman
Early life and education
Early life and education
Hartley was born in Berkeley, California, in March 1959, the youngest of four children of a Lutheran father, Louis Hartman, and a Jewish mother, Blanche Hartman (née Gelders). Her grandfather, Joseph Gelders, was a University of Alabama physics professor, a prominent labor and civil rights activist, and a Communist Party USA (CPUSA) member in the 1930s. Hartley's parents converted to Buddhism when she was young. Her mother supported the family as a biochemist after her father, San Francisco radio announcer Louis Hartman, was blacklisted in 1957 for his communist beliefs. As a teenager, Hartley self-identified as a feminist, influenced by the slogan "my body, my rules". 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, receiving a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. She was a registered nurse until her license expired in 1986.
Adult film career
Adult film career
Hartley has stated that pornography is one of the few places where women are allowed to initiate and take pleasure in sex in a society that restricts women's sexuality with expectations of virginity, monogamy, and childbearing. She deliberately sought a career in pornography as a way to make a living by having sex, later telling Las Vegas Weekly, "Porn gave me easy access to women without having to date them or have a relationship." She writes that part of her reason for choosing sex work was to be able to indulge her exhibitionistic and voyeuristic streak. She has said she chose her life's work when she saw the 1976 erotic film The Autobiography of a Flea alone at a theater in San Francisco. In 1982, during her sophomore year of nursing school, Hartley started working as a stripper at the Sutter Cinema and then the Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre. She told an interviewer 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, and "Hartley" because it was close to her own last name, and she "wanted a name that sounded like that of a real person." Her pornographic film debut was in Educating Nina (1984), where she was cast and directed by fellow performer Juliet Anderson. For many years, she toured the United States and Canada as a stripper and made personal appearances at sex shops. Hartley describes her father's reaction to her choice of occupation: He asked, 'Why sex? Why not the violin?' I know now that I'm sexual the way that Mozart was musical [...] a life of public sexuality has, from my very first time on stage, been as natural to me as breathing." In the 1980s and early 1990s, Hartley starred in several of the Debbie Does Dallas film series spin-offs such as Debbie Duz Dishes (1986) and Debbie Does Wall Street (1991). In 1992, she directed her first movie, Nina Hartley's Book of Love. She also produced and starred in a series of sex education videos for Adam & Eve. In 1994, she began her line of instructional videos marketed under the Nina Hartley's Guide brand. She played the part of Hillary Clinton in the 2008 satirical pornographic film Who's Nailin' Paylin?, with Lisa Ann in the role of Sarah Palin. As of 2015, she was still actively performing, and by 2017 had appeared in more than one thousand pornographic films. She has been described by the San Francisco Chronicle as "one of the best-known actresses in the industry" and by CNBC as "a legend in the adult world".
Mainstream media appearances
Mainstream media appearances
Hartley acted in the 1996 Canadian film Bubbles Galore and has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and The Phil Donahue Show to defend the pornographic film industry. In the 1997 film Boogie Nights, she played William H. Macy's character's serially unfaithful wife who is murdered. She later remarked, "The only movie I ever died in for having sex was a mainstream movie." Hartley appeared in the 1998 documentary Traci Lords: The E! True Hollywood Story and was interviewed in The Naked Feminist (2003). Hartley was featured in After Porn Ends (2012), and appears in Sticky: A (Self) Love Story (2016), in which she discusses masturbation with regards to education, the forced resignation of Joycelyn Elders, and her opinions on the blackballing of comedian Paul Reubens after his arrest for masturbating in a public theater.
Activism
Activism
Las Vegas Weekly has described Hartley as an "outspoken feminist, sex educator and advocate for sexual freedom" and "a guiding force for a generation of feminist porn stars". She has described herself both as a "classical liberal feminist" and a democratic socialist. Hartley began engaging in feminist activism in the 1980s. She has said: Based on my experience as a woman and a sexual being, and my understanding that I had the right to decide for myself what to do with my lifethat's what I understood to be feminist, to give everybody choicesI didn't choose to be a mother but I chose this [porn] because it suits me. Hartley has also been involved in socialist activism and has also been affiliated with the Adult Performer Advocacy Committee (APAC), a labor union founded in 2014 for pornographic film actors. Hartley was elected to the board of the Free Speech Coalition in 1995, and is a long-time board member of the Woodhull Freedom Foundation (founded in 2003). She has made frequent appearances at academic conferences, workshops, and in the media to promote sex positivity. She has given lectures at Dartmouth College, Harvard University, and the University of California.
Writing
Writing
In 2006, Hartley co-authored Nina Hartley's Guide to Total Sex with her husband, Ira Levine. The book includes sections on sex toys, swinging, threesomes, dominance and submission, and erotic spanking. Library Journal called the book a "well-written guide" that is "strong on both safe sex and a permissive approach", saying Hartley "handles the material frankly, accurately, and with sensitivity".
Personal life
Personal life
Hartley is a self-described bisexual, swinger, and exhibitionist. She married her first husband, a former Students for a Democratic Society leader, in a three-way marriage with a second woman in 1986. She describes the relationship as a "very unhappy marriage" to "someone who was not a good candidate for mating with a sex worker". Following her divorce in 2003, Hartley married Ira Levine, known professionally as Ernest Greene, a director of bondage films and editor of Hustler's Taboo magazine, with whom she had had a secret relationship in the 1980s. They are openly polyamorous. As of 2014, the couple lives in Los Angeles.
Identity and origins
Identity and origins
Nina Hartley was recorded at birth as Marie Louise Hartman. She also worked under the name Nina Hartley. The authorities additionally record the headings Nina Hartwel, Nina Hartly, Nina Hartman, Nina Hartwell and Anal Annie. Her recorded language was English. Her recorded confession was atheism. She was the child of Blanche Hartman. Other recorded relations include Marge Frantz, Emma Gelders Sterne and Barbara Lindsay.
Identity
Identity
Nina Hartley is recorded as film director, sex educator, webcam model, fetish model and pornographic actor. Work and production. Works recorded as notable number 3: Boogie Nights, Bubbles Galore and Nina Hartley's Guide to Total Sex. Her recorded genres are MILF pornography and pornographic film.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
1959
Nina Hartley born at Berkeley.
Publications
* * * * * * *
Primary material
Documents and archives
Institutional database
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q234271: Nina Hartley
Scholarly · Wikimedia Foundation
reference work
- “Nina Hartley”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
AVN Awards
AVN Awards
Hartley has received a number of AVN Awards, including: AVN • Category — Video/Film • 1986 Best Couples Sex Scene - Film — Ten Little Maidens • 1987 Best Actress - Video — Debbie Duz Dishes • 1989 Best Supporting Actress - Film — Portrait of an Affair • 1989 Best Couples Sex Scene - Film — Amanda By Night II • 1989 Best Couples Sex Scene - Video — Sensual Escape • 1991 Best Supporting Actress - Video — The Last X-Rated Movie • 2000 Best Group Sex Scene - Video — Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women • 2005 Best Specialty Tape - BDSM — Nina Hartley's Private Sessions 13 • 2005 Best Specialty Tape — Spanking for Nina Hartley's Guide to Spanking • 2009 Best Non-Sex Performance — Not Bewitched XXX • 2013 Game Changer • AVN Hall of Fame
XRCO Awards
XRCO Awards
Hartley has won a number of XRCO Awards: XRCO Awards • Year — Category — Video/Film • 1986 — Best Couple Sex Scene — Ball Busters • 1987 — Best Couple Sex Scene — Peeping Tom • 1987 — Torrid Triad Scene — Every Woman Has a Fantasy 2 • 1989 — Female Performer of the Year — – • 1990 — Best Supporting Actress — My Bare Lady • 1990 — Best Girl-Girl Scene — Sorority Pink • 1996 — Hall of Fame • 2000 — Best Group Scene — Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women
Other awards
Other awards
Misc. Awards • Year — Organization — Category • 1988 — Free Speech Coalition — Lifetime Achievement Award • 1990 — FOXE — Female Fan Favorite • 1991 — FOXE — Female Fan Favorite • 1992 — FOXE — Female Fan Favorite • 1994 — Legends of Erotica — Hall of Fame • 1996 — Hot d'Or — Lifetime Achievement Award • 2005 — AEBN VOD Award — Lifetime Achievement Award • 2005 — Hustler — Porn Block of Fame • 2006 — Ninfa Public — Lifetime Career Award • 2014 — Exxxotica Fan Choice Awards — Fanny Lifetime Achievement Award • 2014 — Free Speech Coalition — Leadership Award • 2017 — XBIZ Award — Specialty Release of the Year • 2019 — XBIZ Award — Best Non-Sex Acting Performance (Future Darkly: Artifamily) • 2020 — XBIZ Award — Best Non-Sex Acting Performance (Girls of Wrestling)
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
Institutional database
Wikidata, structured authority record Q234271: Nina HartleyWikimedia Foundation
Verifiedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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