Mika Tan

Mika Tan
Tan at the 2005 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo
Born	(1977-11-27) November 27, 1977 Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Nationality	American
Other names	Mikatan, Mika, Mika Okinawa, Leiloni
Ethnicity	Japanese, Taiwanese, Samoan, Okinawan
Height	5 ft 4 in (1.63 m)
Weight	121 lb (55 kg; 8.6 st)
Spouse(s)	Alec Knight (divorced)
Website	http://www.mikatan.com
No. of adult films	475 (per IAFD)

Mika Tan (born November 27, 1977) is the stage name of an American fetish model (BDSM/DS/stocking and pantyhose fetish), and pornographic actress.

Early life and career

Tan was born in Hawaii to a Japanese-Samoan father and an Okinawan-Taiwanese mother. She was raised by her grandmother, who was an established folk dancer and singer and was also the owner of several massage parlors. While her mother's family was musical, her father's was mainly military, including her sister - who serves in the United States Marine Corps and has helped Tan with her official website. As a "Navy brat", Tan traveled around the United States, Europe, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa all before she started high school. She had a childhood background in the performing arts and has worked in the commercial fisheries industry in the past.

Tan began as a child model, doing catalog work beginning at age 12, and she has also appeared as an extra in movies & television and in commercials and live musical theater. She was a member of a dance troupe, where she performed modern jazz and ballet.

Tan used her National Merit Scholarship to earn a bachelor's degree in biochemistry from San Diego State University and an associate's degree in psychology. It took her five years to graduate, and she did nude art modeling and was a stripper to support her last year as a student. Tan has studied classical voice and also graduated from the John Robert Powers Modeling/Finishing School. She has also appeared on Playboy TV and in a music video for Too $hort called "Get in Where you Fit In".

Despite her aptitude for science, she did not enjoy it and worked in sales and marketing in the timeshare industry for Dennis Hof.

She tried her hand at mainstream acting in California but quit after discovering that the casting couch was not a myth.

Adult film career

Tan was discovered at an am/pm by porn director Jack Pearl. Tan also had a third trimester miscarriage during this period, which she has described as the worst time of her life. She was married once to Alec Knight, another performer in the adult industry.

Mika Tan at the KSEXradio.com Listeners Choice Awards, December 2006

Tan primarily does fetish-oriented work, including work as a dominatrix and sub for the Kink.com group of companies, mostly the "Men in Pain" and "Divine Bitches" websites. She also stars in non-fetish oriented work. She considers herself mainly a fetish model rather than a porn star though. The official biography on her website states: "For the record, I do not consider myself a porn star and any girl who has done less than 250 films shouldn't either." Tan moved into film production & direction with her own production company (GenerAsianxxx Productions) with her debut film featuring heterosexual Asian-American men in hardcore scenes.

Tan identifies as bisexual, and she briefly tried escorting in 2001.

In 2011, Complex magazine ranked her at #23 on their list of "The Top 50 Hottest Asian Porn Stars of All Time".

Awards

• 2006 Adam Film World Award - Best Asian Starlet
• 2006 XRCO Award - Unsung Siren
• 2007 AVN Award - Underrated Starlet of the Year (Unrecognized Excellence)
• 2009 Urban X Award - Hall of Fame

Gallery

External links

• Mika Tan at the Internet Movie Database
• Mika Tan on Twitter
• Mika Tan at the Internet Adult Film Database
• Mika Tan at the Adult Film Database
• Mika Tan Partial Adult Filmography

• Mika Tan at the Internet Adult Film Database
• Mika Tan - BangBros Network. Retrieved December 15, 2011.
• http://blog.myspace.com Interview by Vincent P Davis