Born on March 14, 1988, Marina Ann Hantzis, also professionally known as Sasha Grey, is an American actress, model, writer, musician, and former porn star. In the pornographic film industry, she started her acting career and went on to win 15 honors for her efforts between 2007 and 2010, including the 2008 AVN Award for Female Performer of the Year. In 2023, she was inducted into the XRCO and AVN Halls of Fame.
Born on March 14, 1988, Marina Ann Hantzis, also professionally known as Sasha Grey, is an American actress, model, writer, musician, and former porn star. In the pornographic film industry, she started her acting career and went on to win 15 honors for her efforts between 2007 and 2010, including the 2008 AVN Award for Female Performer of the Year. In 2023, she was inducted into the XRCO and AVN Halls of Fame.
Following her leading role in Steven Soderbergh’s 2009 feature film The Girlfriend Experience, Grey acted in indie films such as Open Windows, Smash Cut (a Canadian black comedy horror thriller), and Would You Rather? Her portrayal of herself was fictitious in the 2011 HBO comedy-drama series Entourage.
Early life
Born in the North Highlands of the state, Grey grew up in a working-class household in Sacramento, California. Grey was raised by her mother, who remarried in 2000 after her parents separated before she entered middle school. Her mother raised her as a devout Catholic.
Highlands High School in the North Highlands was one of the four high schools that Grey attended. She completed her education a year ahead of schedule, at the age of 17, and enrolled in acting, dancing, and cinema programs at Sacramento City College in late 2005. She worked as a waitress at a Black Angus steakhouse until March 2006, when she decided to move to Los Angeles and accumulated $7,000.
Porn Career
In 2006, Grey debuted in hardcore pornography, not long after turning eighteen. Before deciding on Sasha Grey, she thought about naming herself Anna Karina, after the French New Wave actress of the same name. Sascha Konietzko from the band KMFDM served as the inspiration for ‘Sasha’. Either Oscar Wilde’s classic The Picture of Dorian Gray or the Kinsey scale, which rates gay and heterosexual attraction on a continuum, or “scale of gray,” serve as the inspiration for her surname.
In November 2006, Los Angeles magazine featured Grey, who had only been in the adult industry for less than six months, and said that she had the potential to be a big celebrity, possibly the next Jenna Jameson. The Insider, a syndicated entertainment industry news program, interviewed Grey in December 2006.
When Grey visited the Tyra Banks Show in February 2007, she talked about teenagers who work in the sex industry. Rumors circulated that the show underwent extensive editing, and she refrained from defending her decision to pursue a career in adult movies. The production also used the interview to heighten the dramatic effect, drawing criticism.
She won the AVN Female Performer of the Year Award in 2008, making history as the youngest female winner ever. Grey declared in 2008 that she would use her agency, L.A. Factory Girls, to represent herself in the adult industry. In addition, Grey starred in Pirates II: Stagnetti’s Revenge, the most decorated film in the history of the 26th AVN Awards, which took home 15 awards in 2009.
In April 2011, Grey announced her retirement from the profession on Facebook, having filmed her final adult video at the age of 21 in 2009.
A. O. Scott of the New York Times described Grey’s career in pornography as “distinguished both by the extremity of what she is willing to do and an unusual degree of intellectual seriousness about doing it.” In 2009, Attack of the Show! featured a two-hour documentary on Sexpo Australia, which Grey hosted on G4tv. With her mainstream roles maintaining interest in her earlier adult film work and various firms continuing to issue compilations from her films, CNBC ranked Grey as one of the 12 most popular stars in adult films in 2011. According to The Guardian, she has starred in 270 adult films. Grey directed The Seduction (2009) and Birthday Party.
Modelling
Terry Richardson, a fashion photographer, took the photos that went along with Grey’s July 2007 Penthouse Pet of the Month designation. In addition, she was profiled in Rolling Stone in December 2008 and two appearances in Playboy—a December 2009 pictorial and an October 2010 cover story. Grey has posed for a number of brands, such as American Apparel, Flaunt, and Max Azria’s Manoukian range. Grey participated in Richard Kern’s book and the three-part VBS.tv series Shot by Kern, and modeled for him for Vice magazine’s anti-fashion layout.
Mainstream
Grey portrayed Chelsea, an escort hired to pretend to be her clients’ girlfriend, in Steven Soderbergh’s film The Girlfriend Experience. After reading Grey’s Los Angeles magazine feature, Soderbergh decided to cast her. Soderbergh urged Grey to watch Jean-Luc Godard’s films Vivre sa vie and Pierrot le Fou, both starring Anna Karina, while she got ready for her part in The Girlfriend Experience. In addition, Grey and Soderbergh conducted interviews with two escorts from whom they derived qualities and behaviors.
Grey starred in the 2009 Canadian low-budget black comedy/horror film Smash Cut alongside David Hess from Odessa/Zed Filmworks. Grey also made a cameo appearance in Dick Rude’s 2010 independent film Quit. Grey first appeared in an episode of James Gunn’s PG Porn with James Gunn in 2009. In a multi-episode arc as Vincent Chase’s new girlfriend in the seventh season of the HBO series Entourage, Grey portrayed a fictionalized version of herself. In Mark Pellington’s thriller I Melt With You, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival on January 26, 2011, Grey plays Raven.
Grey made appearances in the music videos for the songs “Superchrist” by The Smashing Pumpkins from 2007 and “Birthday Girl” by The Roots from 2008. She portrayed a girlfriend who Eminem chokes to death before understanding she is just a fantasy in the 2011 music video for the song “Space Bound,” which debuted on Vevo.
Music
Grey began doing regular DJ gigs in 2010 and has since shared some of her mixes on SoundCloud. When creating her songs, Grey mentioned using SD cards, USB sticks, and CDJs. Her mixes, according to Earmilk or David Sikorski, were “a testament to her wide range, eclectic taste in music, and her ability to understand the mechanics of solid electronic music production.”
Books
Grey released her picture book, Neü Sex, on March 29, 2011. “Another right step in transforming herself into the multimedia artist she sees herself as” was how BlackBook put it, and the Portland Mercury likened Grey’s “distinct style” to that of Cindy Sherman and Terry Richardson.
Other
Grey Area began hosting the VENN program in 2020. Grey started Twitch streaming playthroughs of video games in the first part of 2020.
Personal
Grey describes herself as bisexual and existentialist. She rejects religion. Thirteen years ago, Ian Cinnamon was her senior partner in a long-term relationship that ended in engagement in 2013.
Rock and pop culture critic Art Tavana has compared Grey to Madonna, describing her as “defiantly feminist” and a “novelist, EDM DJ, sex-positive feminist, Formula 1 racer, or action star—no matter what it is, it’s more than ‘ex-porn star'” in an interview from May 2016. Meghan O’Rourke stated in a 2009 essay that Grey “sees her extremity as helping to liberate female sexuality,” but she also referred to Grey’s character as “a clever marketing tactic.” “What’s most important about her is her impact on feminism,” said Vanessa Grigoriadis. Grey stated in a 2011 interview with the Journal Frankfurt that she disagrees with the label “feminist” and that, if she were one, she would be a “post-modern feminist.”
Grey, an admitted movie enthusiast, took on the role of French-Danish actress Anna Karina in 2006. She expressed her admiration for the films of Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni, French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard, Danish Dogme 95 director Lars von Trier, New German Cinema director Werner Herzog, feminist director Catherine Breillat, and American director David Lynch.
