A Field Guide To Sunny Leone

Do you know who the most Googled celebrity in India is? It's Sunny Leone, the busty Indo-Canadian pornstar! Her popularity has been booming since she joined the cast of Indian reality show "Bigg Boss 5," so now is the perfect time for us to steal some of those Google searches help inform the masses about this sexy ray of sunshine.

Karen Malhotra was born on May 13, 1981 (hey, that's my birthday, too!) in Sarnia, Ontario. Her parents raised her Sikh but enrolled her in a Catholic school because they thought public school would be unsafe. She describes young Sunny (er, Karen) as an energetic and athletic youth, playing street hockey with the boys, "going ice skating on a nearby frozen lake and drinking hot chocolate in front of a fire after playing in the snow all day" (picturesque and true). Her family moved from Canada to Michigan and finally to Orange County, California, where she graduated from high school and began studying to be a pediatric nurse.

One of Leone's classmates—who had been working as a stripper—introduced her to an agent who in turn introduced her to a Penthouse photographer. After trying her hand (and some other body parts) at modeling, Sunny decided it could be a lucrative career. Her pseudonym's first name is simply how she introduced herself to Penthouse, while the surname came courtesy of Bob Guccione himself. Her first pictures came out in 2001, and her career took off from there. Sunny was named Penthouse Pet of the Year in 2003, and in 2005 she became Adam & Eve's West Coast Internet Sales Representative (whatever that is) and also signed a three-year contract with Vivid Entertainment. At the time, she said she would only perform girl-girl scenes, but she started performing girl-boy in 2007, first with her then-fiance, Matt Erikson, and later with male pornstars. Interesting factoids: prior to all this nudity business, Sunny's only work experience had been earned at a German bakery, a Jiffy Lube, and a tax and retirement firm.

Sunny didn't tell her parents about her profession until she was named Penthouse Pet of the Year, but when she told them, they took it in stride. She tells The Times of India:

"My parents, who are originally from Punjab, were completely shocked when they found out I was in the adult entertainment industry. Their reaction was what I expected, and I was prepared for it. When my father realized what I did, he said, 'You didn't even ask us before you did this! But whatever you do, make sure you do it well.' My mother was also stunned when she found about my lesbian lovemaking videos, but she accepted it. And the fact that my work didn't change me as a person worked in my favour. My parents soon realized it and respected me for who I am and my decisions. So there was never any question of being disowned by my family."

In addition to being a damn fine performer, Sunny produces and directs movies for her own studio, Sunlust. She earned her first AVN title by starring in Vivid's first interactive movie, "Virtual Vivid Girl Sunny Leone," and she also boasts multiple other titles from AVN, XBIZ, and the F.A.M.E. awards. This barely scratches the surface of all Leone has accomplished! Non-nude pictures of Sunny were part of the first iPhone app to be sanctioned by Apple and sold in the iTunes store (Apple got rid of the app barely five months after it debuted, but this is still a rather cool point on the Leone timeline), her image has been used to market skateboards and shoes, she's appeared in both music videos and documentaries on MTV, she shaved off her pubes to protest the Bush administration, she shows up in the PlayStation Portable game "Pocket Pool," she's made (SFW) promotional videos for a group that promotes young voter registration, she—along with Monique Alexander and Keni Style—ran in the Rock n' Roll Los Angeles Half-Marathon to raise money for the American Cancer Society, and she has (and continues) to show up in mainstream Hollywood films such as "Middle Men" and "The Virginity Hit."

Of course, those events and accomplishments only relate to America. In India, right now, Sunny Leone is the name that thousands of fingertips type out every single day, and it's all due to her time on "Bigg Boss." She joined the housemates in November, telling everyone on the show that she was a model and TV actress in America. She's since divulged her true profession to her co-stars, and they have been quite kind and accepting of Sunny; sadly, the same can't be said of some viewers. Concerned citizens, politicians, and figures of the entertainment industry have lodged complaints with the Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, claiming that the channel that hosts "Bigg Boss" is promoting pornography by having Leone on the show. Naturally, the controversy has only increased Sunny's popularity and earned her the attention of many Bollywood directors, one of whom has already cast her for the lead female role in "Jism 2" ("jism" means "body," for the record).

We're not surprised by the outrage that people have expressed over Sunny's exposure, but we didn't expect Sunny's career to get such a huge boost from this stuff either! Is there a chance she'll leave the adult industry to dedicate herself to mainstream cinema? We desperately hope not, and it's comforting to know that Sunny isn't the type of girl to turn her back on anything. Ok, so maybe she ditched the nursing route for nude modeling, and she also ditched her B-cups for a pair of bouncy C's, but she stays close with her family, she keeps up with her fans (that is, when she's not trapped in the "Bigg Boss" house), and she even maintains the Sikh traditions she was raised with. As she told Eye Weekly, "Girls will leave the industry claiming that they found God. Well, the fact is, God has always been with them the entire time."

· Check out her official website (sunnyleone.com)
· Her Twitter (twitter.com)
· Her blog (blog.sunnyleone.com)
· And the (surprising) wealth of information on Sunny's Wikipedia page (en.wikipedia.org)

[Photo via Penthouse (galleries.penthouse.com)]

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