What Is Nina Hartley's Net Worth?
Nina Hartley is an American adult film star, director, feminist, and author who has a net worth of $4 million. Nina Hartley has appeared in 938 adult films and has directed more than a dozen others. Her first film, "Educating Nina," was a huge hit and launched her career. She has also appeared in mainstream films, including "Boogie Nights" and "Bubbles Galore".
Early Life
Nina Hartley was born Marie Louise Hartman on March 11, 1959, in Berkeley, California. She is the youngest of four children to Louis and Blanche Hartman. Her parents were active members of the Communist Party USA and converted to Buddhism when she was young. In 1957, her father was blacklisted for his communist beliefs. Nina attended Berkeley High School and graduated in 1977. She graduated from San Francisco State University's nursing program magna cum laude in 1985. She was a registered nurse until her license expired in 1986.
Adult Industry Career
Nina began working as a stripper during her sophomore year of college at the Sutter Cinema and later the Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre, inspired after she saw a film called "The Autobiography of a Flea." It was the first adult film directed by a woman, Sharon McNight.
She shifted her focus to acting in adult projects her junior year, starting out at first in photo spreads for magazines like "High Society" and "Hustler." Hartley made her debut performance in the adult film "Educating Nina," during which she was a protege of adult film actress Juliet Anderson. She chose the stage name Nina Hartley 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 as close to her own real last name as possible and because she "wanted a name that sounded like that of a real person.'"
During the '80s and early '90s, Hartley starred in several of the "Debbie Does Dallas" film series spin-offs, such as 1986's "Debbie Duz Dishes" and 1991's "Debbie Does Wall Street." She directed her first movie, "Nina Hartley's Book of Love," in 1992. For several years, Nina toured the U.S. and Canada as a stripper. She also made personal appearances at adult shops around the country.
Mainstream Films
Hartley played the role of William H. Macy's character's cheating wife in the smash 1997 hit "Boogie Nights." She also appeared in 1996's Canadian film "Bubbles Galore." That same year, Nina appeared in Tupac Shakur's music video for "How Do U Want It?"
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Sex-Positive Work and Activism
In 1994, she started a popular line of instructional videos devoted to sex (marketed under the Nina Hartley brand), and she is often called upon to speak on talk shows and at conferences about the adult industry, often alongside other notable figures in the adult film industry such as Jenna Jameson. She published the book "Nina Hartley's Guide to Total Sex" in 2006. In 2012, she co-wrote the book series "How to be Kinkier." That same year, she appeared in the documentary "After Porn Ends" and talked about the experience of life after being an adult film star.
In 2016, Nina appeared in the award-winning documentary "Sticky: A (Self) Love Story." She attended the Las Vegas premiere of the documentary at the Erotic Heritage Museum and sat on a Q&A panel with fellow adult film actress Ginger Lynn and the writer / producer / director of the film, Nicholas Tana. In the film, Hartley gives testimony on her sex-positive views on self-love with regard to sexual education.
She is a board member of the Woodhull Freedom Foundation and has been a long-time advocate for the adult film industry's right to exist. Nina has lectured at many universities over the years such as Dartmouth, Harvard, and her alma mater, Berkeley. Hartley was interviewed by Eric Schlosser for his book "Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market." She was very critical in her interview of the hypocrisy of anti-porn actions and legislation.
(Photo by Gabe Ginsberg/FilmMagic)
Awards and Accolades
Hartley has won numerous awards over her long-spanning career in the adult entertainment industry. She has won nine Adult Video News Awards, including Best Actress for Debbie Duz Dishes, 1987's Best Couples Sex Scene Film for Amanda By Night II, Best Supporting Actress for The Last X-Rated Movie, Best Specialty tape for "Nina Hartley's Guide to Spanking," and others. She has also won seven XRCO Awards. In 1988, she won the Free Speech Coalition Lifetime Achievement Award. She is a three-time winner of the FOXE Female Fan Favorite for the consecutive years 1990, 1991, and 1992. In 2014, she won the Fanny Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2019, she won the XBIZ Award for Best Non-Sex Acting Performance for her appearance on "Future Darkly: Artifamily."
Personal Life
In her private life, Hartley is bisexual. She was in a relationship with both a man and a woman from 1981 to 2000. She married her male partner in 1986, and they divorced in 2003. The year after her divorce was finalized, she married porn director Ira Levine, and they remain in an openly polyamorous relationship.
