
Leone at the 2002 Adult Entertainment Expo, one of her earliest promotional appearances
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
Penthousemagazine.
[21] 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 also appeared in other magazines including
Cheri,
[22] Mystique Magazine,
[23]High Society,
Swank,
AVN Online,
Leg World,
Club International and
Lowrider,
[24][25] while her online credits include ModFX Models,
[26] Suze Randall,
[27]Ken Marcus[28] and Mac & Bumble.
[29]
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.
[2] Her first movie released was titled
Sunny[31] 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.
[32]Taking only four days to film,
[19] 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 Gardnerco-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,
[33]and
The Sunny Experiment also starring Monique Alexander and Brea Lynn.
[34] 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.
[35] That summer she also received
breast augmentation,
[36] and shot her first movie under the new contract titled
Sunny Loves Matt. The movie led to her being nominated for three (out of six) AVN awards in 2009 in addition to being a choice for Female Performer of the Year.
[37] She followed up her first boy-girl title with
The Other Side of Sunny in October 2008, which would be the last time she would perform with Erikson.
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[38] and
Voodoo.
[39] In 2009, Vivid released her only movie performing with other male actors titled "
Sunny B/G Adventure".
[40] Her final release under contract with Vivid – "
Undress Me", once again made her exclusive to performing with just one male actor, Daniel Webber.
[41]
In August 2009, she announced the launch of her own studio, Sunlust Pictures, with Daniel Weber as her partner.
[42] With her new venture Leone announced her plans to write, direct and create her own brand of
adult movies with Vivid Entertainment as her distributor.
[38] Her first independent production,
The Dark Side of the Sun, was released in March 2009, and was debuted at the Erotic Heritage Museum in
Las Vegas.
[43] In June 2009, she held a casting call in Las Vegas for her second independent production titled
Sunny Slumber Party[44] (released September 2009).She followed up with three other self-produced features
Gia Portrait of a Porn Star(2010) which was nominated for multiple AVN awards,
[45] Roleplay (2011) and
Goddess (2012) which featured her first
anal sex scene.
[46]