Biography of Sunny Leone
 Sunny Leone (born Karen Malhotra on May 13, 1981) is an Indo-Canadian pornographic
actress and model. In addition to being a former Penthouse Pet of the Year, she
is also a successful businesswomen and has played roles in independent mainstream
films and T.V shows.
Early life
Karen Malhotra was born in Sarnia, Ontario to Punjabi parents who immigrated
from India and was raised as a Sikh. Her father was born in Tibet and raised
in Delhi, while her mother (who passed away in 2008) was from a small town called
Nahan in Himachal Pradesh. As a young girl, she was very athletic and played
street hockey with the boys, enjoyed ice skating on a nearby frozen lake and
drinking hot chocolate in front of a fire after playing in the snow all day.
Her parents enrolled her in a Catholic school, where she had her first kiss
at 11, lost her virginity to a basketball player at another school at 16, and
found out she was bisexual at 18. When she was 15, her family received their
green card and migrated to the United States. They first moved to Fort Gratiot,
Michigan, then to Lake Forest, California before finally settling down in Orange
County, California fulfilling a dream of her grandparents that all of them be
together in one place. She graduated from high school in 1999 and proceeded
to enroll in college.
Career
Before working in the entertainment industry, she first worked at a German bakery,
a Jiffy Lube, and later a tax and retirement firm.
While studying to be a pediatric nurse in Orange County, a classmate who was
an exotic dancer introduced Leone to John Stevens, an agent who in turn introduced
her to Jay Allen, a photographer for Penthouse magazine. When picking a name
for her adult career, she has said that Sunny is her real name and Leone was
picked by Bob Guccione, former owner of Penthouse magazine. She posed for Penthouse
magazine, and was named Penthouse Pet of the Month for the March 2001 issue,
followed by a feature in the Holiday 2001 edition of Hustler magazine as a Hustler
Honey. She has appeared in other magazines including Cheri, Mystique Magazine,
High Society, Swank, AVN Online, Leg World, Club International and Lowrider,
while her online credits include ModFX Models, Suze Randall and Mac & Bumble.
Her most recent pictorial award was the Danni.com Girl of the Month for March
2008.Her pictorial credits also include working stars like Adriana Sage, Jenna
Jameson, Jelena Jensen and Aria Giovanni.
In 2003, she was declared the Penthouse Pet of the Year and also starred in
the video Penthouse Pets in Paradise alongside Tera Patrick and Kyla Cole. In
addition to her print work, she had also done pantyhose modeling with Ed Fox
and Playtime Videos as well as bondage videos for FM Concepts. In 2005 Adam
& Eve appointed her as their West Coast Internet Sales Representative.
Sunny on the cover of the September 2006 issue of PenthouseThat same year,
Leone signed a three-year contract with Vivid Entertainment with which she transitioned
into the world of hardcore pornography, stating that she would only do lesbian
scenes. Her first movie released was titled Sunny and was released in December
2005. Her next movie, Virtual Vivid Girl Sunny Leone, was the first interactive
title for Leone, who was the first Vivid Girl to make such a movie. Taking only
four days to film, the movie won her her first AVN award (Best Interactive DVD).
She followed this with Sunny Loves Cher, which featured her first on-screen
squirting.
Leone's last two movies under her contract with Vivid were It's Sunny in Brazil,
which was filmed in Brazil. and The Sunny Experiment also starring Monique Alexander
and Brea Lynn. The movies were released in October and December 2007 respectively.
In May 2007, upon re-signing her contract with Vivid for another six films,
Leone agreed to perform for the first time with men on camera, but exclusively
with her fiancé, Matt Erikson. That summer she also received breast augmentation,
and shot her first movie under the new contract titled Sunny Loves Matt. The
movie led to her to be nominated for three (out of six) AVN awards in 2009 in
addition to being a choice for Female Performer of the Year. She followed up
her first boy-girl title with The Other Side of Sunny in October 2008, which
would be the last time she would perform with Erikson.
In January 2008, Leone revealed that she was no longer exclusive to Erikson,
and had done scenes with other actors, most notably Tommy Gunn, Charles Dera,
James Deen, and Voodoo. In August of that same year, she announced the launch
of her own studio, Sunlust Pictures, with Daniel Weber as her partner. With
her new venture Leone plans to write, direct and create her own brand of adult
movies with Vivid Entertainment as her distributor.[28] Her first independent
production, The Dark Side of the Sun, was released in March 2009, and was debuted
at the Erotic Heritage Museum in Las Vegas. In June 2009, she held a casting
call in Las Vegas for her second independent production titled Sunny Slumber
Party.
No longer exclusive to Vivid, Sunny has started working with other studios
and performers since 2009.She has starred in the Cherry Boxx production of Sunny
Leone's Watch Me (released April 2009), Triangle Films Intimate Initiations
12 and Vivid's Undress Me (released June 2009). She has also signed on for skinworXXX's
upcoming titles Deviance, starring Eva Angelina and Teagan Presley; and in Sun
Goddess: Jamaica, featuring Jenna Haze,Bree Olson and Sasha Grey. She has several
titles under Vivid which have yet to be released namely Sunny Extreme, Sunny's
Dream and Vivid Red.
Leone at the 2005 AVN AwardsLeone has also built a sizable online presence
with her official website, sunnyleone.com, along with affiliate sites sunnysmoney.com
and sunnysfriends.com. She has managed to leverage her online popularity by
striking deals with firms like PPPcard, AdultPokerParty.com, Brickhouse, Flirt4Free,
Totemcash and Imlive to sell and distribute her content over the internet and
other media.She most recently updated her website in 2009 to include high definition
audio and video, new hardcore material; and news updates to work in conjunction
with her Twitter and Facebook pages. For her online efforts, she won the "Web
Babe of the Year" at the 2008 Xbiz Awards. Her websites and business interests
are run under her banner company Leone L.L.C.
Leone was voted #13 (up from #41 in 2007) on Genesis magazine's "Top 100
Porn stars" list, #34 on Desiclubs.com's Top 50 Coolest Desis of 2004,
and one of the "40 under 40" ranking on AVN Online Magazine.
Personal life
In June 2006, Leone became an American citizen, but has plans to be a dual citizen
of Canada. Though bisexual, she has stated that she prefers men. In her spare
time she enjoys abstract paintings, horse riding, reading, playing World of
Warcraft, and enjoys watching The Simpsons and The Discovery Channel. She used
to play on a women's soccer league team in California. Her favorite holiday
destination is Hawaii, and her favorite cuisine is Italian.
In separate interviews, she has stated that in ten years time she would like
to be married and have started a family, and probably retire from the industry
by the time she is 30. Leone was engaged to Matt Erikson, a vice-president of
marketing at Playboy Enterprises, but they broke up in 2008, and is currently
dating her business partner Daniel Webber. She currently resides in Hollywood,
California with her cat and drives an Audi A5. Full name: Sunny Leone
Born: May 13, 1981
Birthplace: Sarnia, Ontario, Canada
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