Adult film actress, Sunny Leone has become a household name in India owing to her induction into the ‘Bigg Boss’ house. By now, we all know that she is a star in the adult film industry and is an Indian born Canadian. While Sunny Leone may register as just another porn star, there are certain interesting facts about her. find here something about Sunny Leone.

Sunny Leone is an Indo-Canadian pornographic actress, actress, businesswoman and model. Leone has appeared in various reality shows in the US, and was named among the world's top 12 porn stars by fashion magazine Maxim in 2010.

Sunny Leone's real name was "Karen Malhotra". She was born on 13th May, 1981 in Sarnia, Ontario to Sikh Punjabi parents from India.

Her father was born in Tibet and raised in Delhi, while her mother (who died in 2008) was from a small town named Nahan in Sirmaur, Himachal Pradesh, India.

She was reportedly enrolled in a Catholic school because her parents thought it would be unsafe for her to go to a public school due to her Sikh upbringing.

When she was 13, her family moved to Fort Gratiot, Michigan, then to Lake Forest, California a year later, fulfilling her grandparents' dream that the family be together in one place. She graduated from high school in 1999 and enrolled in college.

Before working in the porn 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. There was obviously no looking back after she was named Penthouse Pet of the Month in March 2001.


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, Ken Marcus and Mac & Bumble. Her pictorial credits also include working with 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 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 the world of hardcore pornography, stating that she would only do lesbian scenes.


When Leone signed her first contract for working in pornographic films, she maintained that she would only perform with women.

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,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 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 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.

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 2008, 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. Her first independent production, The Dark Side of the Sun, was released in March 2009.

Leone 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 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.


In addition to her film career, Leone has been part of the Vivid Comedy Tour, and has modeled for the Vivid Footwear collection.

Leone has also participated in events like the Vivid/ClubJenna Lingerie Bowl and Vivid's Hot Rod Night.

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 star. By February 2010, the app had been removed by Apple from the store.

Leone's first mainstream appearance was in 2005, when she was a red carpet reporter for the MTV Awards on MTV India.


She has indicated that for the right price she would seriously consider a career in Bollywood. She has been courted by Indian directors in the past but has felt uncomfortable with the roles that she would have played. Director Mohit Suri is rumored to have asked Leone to play the lead role in his movie Kalyug, but instead cast Deepal Shaw as he could not afford her $1 million acting fee.

She has mentioned that Aamir Khan is her favorite Bollywood Actor, and that over 60% of her fans are from South Asia.

In 2011, she participated in the Indian reality series Bigg Boss, entering the house on day 49. However she refused to divulge her 'porn star' status and replied to a poser from actress, and 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 has 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".

In June 2006, Leone became an American citizen, but plans to remain a dual citizen of Canada.

Her second movie, titled ‘Virtual Vivid Girl Sunny Leone’, fetched her her first AVN Award, which is considered to be the “Oscars of porn.”

In 2010, she was adjudged as one of the 12 top female stars in porn by leading men’s magazine, Maxim.

Leone was engaged to Matt Erikson, a vice-president of marketing at the famous Playboy Enterprises. The duo has broken up now, but both are, reportedly, great friends in spite of it.