Sunny Leone

At 42 years old, Sunny Leone has this physical status:

Before working in the porn industry, Leone worked at a German bakery, a Jiffy Lube store, and later a tax and retirement firm. She was also studying to become a nurse.

When picking a name for her adult career, Leone has stated that Sunny is her real name and that Leone was picked by Bob Guccione, former owner of Penthouse magazine. After posing for that magazine, she 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 also 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, Ken Marcus and Mac & Bumble.

In 2003, she was named "Penthouse Pet of the Year" and starred in the video Penthouse Pets in Paradise alongside Tera Patrick and Kyla Cole. In 2005 Adam & Eve appointed her as their West Coast Internet Sales Representative.

That same year, Leone signed a three-year contract with Vivid Entertainment with which she transitioned into 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 first AVN Award (Best Interactive DVD). She followed this with Sunny Loves Cher, which featured her first on-screen squirting, and The Female Gardner co-starring Mikayla Mendez and Daisy Marie.

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. 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 do her first boy/girl scenes, though only with her fiancé, Matt Erikson. That year she underwent breast augmentation, and shot her first movie under the new contract titled Sunny Loves Matt. For that film she was 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, including Tommy Gunn, Charles Dera, James Deen and Voodoo.

In 2009, Vivid released her only adult movie performing with multiple male actors, titled "Sunny B/G Adventure". Her final release under contract with Vivid – Undress Me, once again made her exclusive to performing with just one male actor, Daniel Weber (he performed under the stage name Ariel King), who subsequently became her husband.

In August 2009, she announced the launch of her own studio, Sunlust Pictures, with Daniel Weber as her partner. With her new venture Leone announced her plans to write, direct and create her own brand of adult movies with Vivid Entertainment as her distributor. 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, which was released in September 2009. She followed up with three other self-produced features; Gia Portrait of a Porn Star (2010) which was nominated for multiple AVN awards, Roleplay (2011) and Goddess (2012) which featured her first anal sex scene.

No longer exclusive to Vivid, Leone began working with other studios and performers since 2009. She leveraged 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 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. She indicated in an April 2012 interview that 80 per cent of the traffic on her website, and 60 per cent of her revenue comes from India.

Leone was part of the Vivid Comedy Tour, and has modelled for the Vivid Footwear collection. Leone has also participated in events like the Vivid/ClubJenna Lingerie Bowl and Vivid's Hot Rod Night. Doc Johnson launched a pocket pal in 2006 moulded to her vagina, and in 2008 released the Sunny Leone Exciter vibrator. Control MFG used Leone's image along with other Vivid girls to market their line of skateboards. She is paired with Gab Ekoe, one of the Team Control riders. She also indicated that she plans to launch her own line of lingerie and other Sunny-branded products including a diamond jewellery line.

In September 2009, an iPhone application consisting of a collection of non-nude photos, some videos and a porn star-penned blog was approved by Apple for sale in the iTunes store, making it the first officially sanctioned application featuring a porn actor. By February 2010, the app had been removed by Apple from the store.

Leone was voted number 13 (up from number 41 in 2007) on Genesis magazine's "Top 100 Porn stars" list, number 34 on Desiclubs.com's Top 50 Coolest Desis of 2004, and one of the "40 under 40" ranking on AVN Online magazine. In 2010, she was named by Maxim as one of the 12 top female stars in porn. She was voted number 82 in the Top 99 Women for 2012 in AskMen.com's list.

In 2013, she announced her retirement from the adult industry, stating: "I am lucky that the audience is accepting me. I have come my way from there (porn industry). I don't have any plans as of now to go back there."

In 2016, she was chosen as one of BBC's 100 Women. The tech magazine Exhibit chose Leone for their cover girl of the October 2016 issue.

Indian film career

In 2011, she participated in the Indian reality series Bigg Boss 5, entering the house on day 49. However, she refused to divulge her porn star status, and replied to fellow house-mate Pooja Bedi that she was a model and a TV star in America for the last ten years or so. It was reported that she caused a stir in the larger populace with her Twitter feed gaining 8,000 new followers in just 2 days and Google saying searches for her experienced a "breakout". There were also complaints lodged with the Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting alleging that the Colors TV channel was promoting pornography by having Leone appear on the show; among those who filed are the Indian Artistes and Actors Forum and Anurag Thakur, member of Lok Sabha and head of the Bharatiya Janata Party's youth wing. She was evicted on Day 91.

During her stay in the Bigg Boss house, Leone was approached by Bollywood film-maker Mahesh Bhatt who entered the house briefly to offer her the lead role in Jism 2 (the sequel to the 2003 film Jism). She accepted it, which resulted in Pooja Bhatt's production house, Fish Eye Network and Leone's agent discussing the movie further. Leone entered Bollywood in 2012 with the film Jism 2 to weak critical reception but was commercially successful. Sunny Leone signed her second Bollywood film, Ragini MMS 2, sequel to Ekta Kapoor's crossover horror movie Ragini MMS. Sunny Leone featured in an item number in the Sanjay Gupta and Ekta Kapoor's 2013 film Shootout at Wadala. She further started filming for Kaizad Gustad's Jackpot in which she plays a femme fatale. Jackpot released on December 13, 2013, and was panned by critics.

Her first release of 2014 was the much anticipated horror film Ragini MMS 2, which proved to be a box-office hit. Leone's performance received all round praise with critic Mohar Basu calling her work a "revelation". Critic Taran Adarsh also noted that Leone, "carries off her character with supreme confidence". In November 2013, she had confirmed that she would make her Tamil film debut in Vadacurry which released in May 2014 and featured her in a special appearance. She next appeared in the item number Pink Lips for the film Hate Story 2. After giving a hit number Pink Lips, she appeared once again in Shake That Booty opposite Mika Singh from his film Balwinder Singh Famous Ho Gaya. She made her acting debut in the Telugu film industry by appearing in a cameo in Current Theega opposite Manchu Manoj and Rakul Preet Singh where she played a school teacher.

Leone then appeared in item song Sesamma Bagilu Tegiyamma in Kannada film DK, which marked her debut in Kannada film industry. In April 2015, Leone appeared in Bobby Khan's musical thriller Ek Paheli Leela, where she portrayed dual roles as Leela, a village belle and Meera, a supermodel from Milan. The film was released on April 10, 2015. The film met with mixed to negative reviews but was a commercial success with collections of ₹27.47 crore (US$3.4 million). After a little gap, post the release of Ek Paheli Leela , she appeared in Devang Dholakia's Kuch Kuch Locha Hai was released on May 8, 2015. She essayed the role of a film star opposite Ram Kapoor, Evelyn Sharma and Navdeep Chabbra. The film emerged to be a critical and commercial failure. She did her second Kannada song "Kamakshi" from the film Luv U Alia. Last in 2015, she appeared in a cameo in Akshay Kumar's Singh is Bling. In January 2016, she appeared in Milap Zaveri's adult comedy Mastizaade, released on January 29, 2016, where she portrayed twin sisters, Laila and Lily Lele along with Tusshar Kapoor and Vir Das. The film released to mixed reviews and was an average earner. One critic said "Leone may not be better than this film, but she's the best thing in it." Her next film was Jasmine D'souza's One Night Stand with Tanuj Virwani released on May 6, 2016. The film was released to mixed reviews but was a flop commercially. Her last release of 2016 was Rajeev Chaudary's Beiimaan Love opposite Rajneesh Duggal that released on October 14, 2016. Her performance was widely praised but the film met with negative reviews and flopped. She also appeared in song "Tu Zaroorat Nahi Tu Zaroori Hai" with Sharman Joshi in Fuddu and item song "Choli Blockbuster" for the film Dongri Ka Raja. In December 2016, her song "Laila Main Laila" from Raees with Shah Rukh Khan was released.

In April 2017, she appeared in a cameo for Sonakshi Sinha's Noor where she is portrayed the role of an actress. She then appeared in song "Piya More" with Emraan Hashmi in Milan Luthria's Baadshaho. In addition, she appeared in song "Trippy Trippy" in Sanjay Dutt's comeback film, Bhoomi released on September 22, 2017. She also made her Marathi and Bengali film debuts the same month with songs "Kuth Kuth Jayacha Honeymoon La" in Vishal Devrukhkar's Boyz and "Chaap Nishna" in Swapan Saha's Shrestha Bangali. She then appeared in song "Deo Deo" for Rajasekhar's Telugu film PSV Garuda Vega Her last appearance was her mainstream film Tera Intezaar along Arbaaz Khan directed by Rajeev Walia. The film released on December 1, 2017.

Sunny Leone was voted by the Network 7 Media Group jury as "Indian Affairs Actress of the year 2018" founded by Satya Brahma at the historic ninth Annual India Leadership Conclave & Indian Affairs Business Leadership Awards 2018.

Sunny Leone's auto biopic titled "Karenjit Kaur – The Untold Story of Sunny Leone", an original web-series by ZEE5, was released on the platform on July 16, 2018. The series narrates her journey from a middle-class girl in Canada to becoming India's most googled celebrity. The series starts from her childhood as Gogu to her foray into the adult film industry to her exciting journey into Bollywood. The series is also available in Bengali, Tamil, Telugu and Marathi languages.

In January 2018, Leone started filming for the Hindi remake of 2012 Punjabi film Jatt & Juliet opposite Manish Paul. She is also stars in Veeramadevi a period war Tamil film in full-fledged lead role directed by V.C. Vadivudaiyan. The shooting for the film commenced in February 2018 and will be released in Telugu, Hindi, and Malayalam.

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