Céline Tran

Céline Tran (born 9 April 1979) Retrieved 31 January 2016. is a French actress, writer, martial artist, blogger, and former pornographic actress, previously known under the stage name Katsuni, and before that Katsu''m''i. She started her adult film career in 2001, working first in France, then in the United States.

She received numerous awards in the course of the adult career, most notably the AVN Award for Female Foreign Performer of the Year which she has won three times.

She retired from pornography in 2013 and returned to France to pursue a career in mainstream entertainment under her real name. Tran has appeared in films such as the French comedy '' Porn in the Hood'' (2012), and Cambodian action film ''Jailbreak'' (2017). She also released an autobiography, ''Ne dis pas que tu aimes ça'', in 2018.

Early life

Tran is of French/Vietnamese heritage. Her father is Vietnamese and her mother's family is French.

She studied for a year at Grenoble Institute of Political Studies. Finding herself ill-suited for political science,Katsuni : «Je n'ai pas l'impression de m'être enfermée dans le porno»
''20 Minutes'', 13 March 2012 she dropped out and then studied literature for three years, envisioning a career as a teacher. During her studies, she did gigs as a go-go dancer, which led her to be spotted by a photographer working for '' Penthouse''. The magazine's French branch was then looking for actresses who would appear in its adult pictures.Katsuni : « Le live, l'avenir du porno »
''Masculin.com'', 30 mars 2012 Tran accepted ''Penthouses proposal for a shoot as a manner of challenge and because she thought it might be an exciting experience.

Career

Adult film career in France and in the United States

Having enjoyed her first experience, she decided to pursue a career in the adult film industry. For two years, she shot movies while continuing her studies but eventually renounced becoming a teacher and decided to pursue a career as a full-time adult actress.

During her career in the pornography industry, which she began in 2001, she appeared in over 400 releases. In 2004, she was voted "the French's favorite porn actress" in a readers' poll organized by trade journal Hot Vidéo. She also appeared in several Italian and Spanish productions, working for directors such as Mario Salieri. She performed alongside Rocco Siffredi in ''Who fucked Rocco ?'', ''Fashionistas Safado: The Challenge'' and ''Fashionistas Safado: Berlin'', the latter two being directed by John Stagliano.

She shot her first American films in 2003. In 2005, she decided to focus on her work in the United States whose industry offered better opportunities. During the next few years, she divided her time between France and the US, working mostly in the latter country. In December 2006, she became the first French actress to sign an exclusive performing contract with Digital Playground.

She originally performed using the stage name ''Katsumi'' (a common given name in Japan for both sexes), but she was barred by a French judge in Créteil in January 2007 from using the name, after a woman named Mary Katsumi sued over the resemblance to her own name. Although she had informed the websites that she had changed her stage name, many outlets kept referring to her as "Katsumi". She was eventually sued again a few months later and, in September 2007, was fined €20,000, having been deemed responsible for various violations of the ban.

In May 2006, she got breast implants. Her first film with her new breasts, ''French ConneXion'' of Marc Dorcel Productions, came out at the beginning of 2007. In the meantime, Tran also modelled for the cover of ''Marquis'' magazine, a leader in fetishism. She also continued working and touring as an exotic dancer in nightclubs of various countries.Katsuni, redevenue Céline Tran, s’attaque à la BD
, ''L'Opinion'', 13 June 2014

In July 2008, Tran released ''My Fucking Life'', a French-language film made for Marc Dorcel Studios. The movie is partly a documentary on Tran's daily life over a year, with a look at her shoots in Las Vegas, on set during filming in Porn Valley, along with a bit of her personal life. In 2008, she was part of the cast of '' Pirates II: Stagnetti's Revenge'', one of the most expensive pornographic films ever produced. In 2012, she directed another feature for Dorcel, ''In bed with Katsuni''. In 2011, ''Complex'' ranked Tran fourteenth on their list of "The Top 100 Hottest Porn Stars Right Now" and third on their list of "The Top 50 Hottest Asian Porn Stars of All Time".

Other media

In the mid-2010s, Tran hosted the weekly French TV show ''En attendant minuit'', broadcast by TPS Star.

During her adult career, Tran's personality and success in the United States attracted the attention of French mainstream media.Katsuni : « Les prostituées et les actrices porno sont en quelque sorte cousines »
''L'Express'', 22 February 2012Katsuni
''Libération'', 17 novembre 2007 In October 2009 she was a guest in the popular talk show ''On n'est pas couché''. In the early 2010s, she wrote articles about the pornography industry for the magazines ''Les Inrockuptibles'' and ''Le Nouvel Observateur''.

In 2010–2011, she hosted on the French channel MCM ''Katsuni's sexy mangas'', a TV show dedicated to hentai. The show was eventually canceled in March 2011 due to a decision of France's Superior Council of Audiovisual content. Among other appearances in French mainstream media, she played herself in the successful comedy film '' Porn in the Hood'' (2012). In 2013, she was one of the porn stars interviewed in the American documentary film ''Aroused'', directed by photographer Deborah Anderson.

Retirement from pornography

On 14 August 2013, Tran announced that she was retiring from pornography to focus on "a new kind of entertainment". She relocated to France and has been using since then her birth name, Céline Tran. A few months after her retirement, she was inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame