Sasha Grey

Marina Ann Hantzis

March 14, 1988 (1988-03-14) (age 22)

North Highlands, California, U.S.

Height 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)

Weight 110 lb (50 kg)

Measurements 32B-26-31

Eye color Hazel

Hair color Brown

No. of adult films 224 and 2 as director (per IAFD)

Sasha Grey (born Marina Ann Hantzis on March 14, 1988) is an American pornographic actress who is also active in mainstream acting, modeling and music. She is a member of aTelecine, an Industrial Noise band.

Grey won several AVN Awards between 2007 and 2010. She was featured in music videos and advertising campaigns. In 2008 she was cast as the lead in Steven Soderbergh's mainstream feature film The Girlfriend Experience.

Early lifeGrey was born and raised in North Highlands, California to a working class family. Her mother worked for the state of California and her father is a Greek-American mechanic.Her parents divorced when she was 5 and subsequently she was raised by her mother, who remarried in 2000. She's stated that while her parents don't like everything she does, they get along.

Grey attended four high schools, among them Highlands High, before graduating, having been unhappy in each one, though she graduated a year early at 17. In autumn 2005, she attended junior college and took classes in film, dance, and acting.

She waited tables at a steakhouse through March 2006 and saved $7,000 for a move to Los Angeles.

Adult filmsIn May 2006 Grey moved to Los Angeles and started her career in adult films just after turning 18. Originally she toyed with the name Anna Karina, taken after the French New Wave actress, before deciding on her present name. The name "Sasha" was taken from Sascha Konietzko of the band KMFDM, and "Grey" represents Oscar Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray and the Kinsey scale of sexuality. Her first scene was an orgy with Rocco Siffredi for The Fashionistas 2 by John Stagliano. Nearly six months after entering the adult industry, Grey was featured in the November 2006 edition of Los Angeles where she was flagged as a potential major star, perhaps the next Jenna Jameson.

Less than a year after entering the industry, in January 2007, Grey was the recipient of awards for "Best Three Way Sex Scene" and "Best Group Scene" at the AVN Adult Movie Awards. She was also nominated as "Best New Starlet", but lost to Naomi. Grey was named Pet of The Month for July 2007 and was photographed by fashion photographer Terry Richardson. In 2008, she became the youngest person to win the AVN "Female Performer of the Year" award. as well as "Best Oral Sex Scene" for a scene.

In December 2006, Grey was interviewed on the syndicated entertainment industry news show The Insider. In February 2007, she appeared on The Tyra Banks Show, discussing teenagers in the sex industry. There was speculation that the show was heavily manipulated through editing, and did not include her defense of pornography as a career choice. The show was also criticized for twisting Grey's depiction to increase its dramatic value. Grey was profiled in the Rolling Stone "Hot Issue" for the December 2008 edition.

Grey represents herself in the adult industry through her own agency, L.A. Factory Girls. Grey has indicated particular appreciation for the work of Andrew Blake and Kimberly Kane.

A. O. Scott of The New York Times described her pornographic career as "distinguished both by the extremity of what she is willing to do and an unusual degree of intellectual seriousness about doing it."

In 2011, she was named by CNBC as one of the 12 most popular stars in porn. CNBC noted that, while she is no longer actiing in porn films, her current mainstream roles have kept interest in her earlier porn work high, and that several companies continue to release compilations of her earlier work.