Sydnee Steele

Sydnee Steele (born September 23, 1970) is an American pornographic actress, free speech activist, sex counselor and author.She appeared in nearly 300 films before her retirement in 2005.Steele was born in Dallas, Texas, the daughter of a college professor. She has described herself as having been a very shy and introverted child, relating in a 2001 interview with AVN, "I used to hide behind my parents' legs when people would say hi to me." Before entering pornography she held a position as a financial officer at a yacht company in Texas. In the early 1990s, while working as a jewelry saleswoman in a Dallas shopping mall, Steele met Michael Raven, a car salesman who sold her a new Miata.They married, finding a common interest in pornography and swinging, and moved to Los Angeles, California to turn their hobbies into careers.Their marriage lasted for ten years, during which Raven became a known pornographic film director.Steele was introduced to the industry through a friend, A.J. Crowell, who at the time was publisher and owner of Sundown, a Texas adult entertainment listings guide. Her debut performance in the adult entertainment industry involved being painted like a zebra in a three-girl scene in The Queen's Challenge (1997), with Anna Malle and Jade St. Clair. Her first big feature film was Flashpoint (1997), directed by pornographic actor and director Brad Armstrong, whom she met at a Gentlemen's Expo. She remained freelance in the early part of her career, working with many adult film production companies including Elegant Angel, Metro Studios, New Sensations, Sin City, VCA and Vivid Entertainment. In 2001, she signed an exclusive contract with Wicked Pictures, becoming a "Wicked Girl". After that she performed in mostly plot-based pornographic films (also known as features) and began winning awards. The film for which she garnered the most acclaim was Brad Armstrong's Euphoria. She was awarded AVN's 2002 Best Actress for her role in the film.She was again nominated for Best Actress in 2003 for Falling From Grace and in 2004 for Lost And Found. After her Wicked contract, she says she received media coverage in nationally distributed publications, including The New York Times, TIME Magazine and Premiere.She was featured in The Learning Channel's Public and Private, where she explains her ideas on the differences between sex in her private life and sex on camera. In 2004, while filming Pillow Talk, directed by Devinn Lane, she told Adult Video News that she had fallen in love with a man from outside the industry, and would only perform girl-girl scenes. It would turn out to be her last pornographic film. Steele left the industry in April 2005. In 2007, she was inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame.