Mimi Miyagi
Mimi Miyagi | |
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File:2013 AVN Awards - Mimi Miyagi (8396773441) (crop).jpg | |
Born | Melody Damayo[1][2] July 3, 1973 [3] Davao City, Philippines[3][4] |
Other names | Miyaki, Mimi Myagi, Myagi, Miyagi[3] |
Ethnicity | Filipina[3][4] |
Height | 5 ft 3 in (1.60 m)[3] |
Website | http://www.mimimiyagi.com |
No. of adult films | 108 as a performer & 4 as a director (approx. per IAFD) |
Melody Damayo (born July 3, 1973[3]) is a model, film director, and actress of Filipino descent best known as Mimi Miyagi.[1][4][5] She is also known for her humanitarian work for underprivileged children in the Philippines.[4][6]
In 2011, Complex magazine ranked her at #12 in their list of “The Top 50 Hottest Asian Porn Stars of All Time”.[2]
Contents
Early life and education
Melody Damayo was born in Davao City,[4] the second of four children, to conservative Seventh-day Adventist parents. When she was six, she moved to the United States with her parents, and she grew up in California.[7]
Damayo went back to Mindanao for high school, and her family enrolled her in a Seventh-day Adventist academy (Mindanao Mission Academy)[4] in Misamis Oriental, hoping she would absorb Filipino values. After finishing high school, she enrolled in an Adventist college in Bukidnon, studying finance and economics at Mountain View College,[4] but she dropped out in her second year. She says she had been a disc jockey on the college radio station[4] and had decided on a career in show business.[7]
Damayo returned to Los Angeles[4] and obtained a scholarship to the American College for Fashion Merchandising, but, once again, she dropped out without graduating[4][8] when she'd run out of money and began looking for jobs. By age 18, she had become a Certified Master Makeup Artist at the makeup artistry school at FOX studios in Hollywood.[4]
Adult film career and mainstream appearances
She took some part-time gigs as a go-go dancer at an Asian nightclub in Beverly Hills, before transitioning into adult films and nude modeling.[4]
Damayo says she saw an advertisement for nude models and answered it. She took the name "Mimi", the childhood nickname given by her grandmother. "Miyagi" was derived from the character Mr. Miyagi in the film The Karate Kid,[2] although she has nothing to do with him. She says she cloaked her actual nationality in Asian mysticism.[7]
In 1996, she retired from adult film acting and moved to Henderson, Nevada. She married a former professional football player[not specific enough to verify]. She hired a consultant to set up a website (MimiMiyagi.com), then got embroiled in a legal battle over control of the domain name.[citation needed] She then learned HTML and created a new website.[2][4]
In 1998, she appeared in an America Undercover documentary entitled Strippers: The Naked Stages.[9]
In 1999, she entered into movie production and talent scouting for Metro Home Video and produced the series Fantasiany,[2] which featured all Asian stars.[4]
She was the publisher of the erotic American Asian magazine Oriental Dolls[2][10] (now known as Asian Hotties).[4]
In 2001, after a divorce, she quietly dedicated herself to several humanitarian[6] and animal volunteer organizations.[4]
Nearly bankrupted by her divorce, in September 2003, "Mimi" came out of retirement and appeared in the adult film Happy Ending[3][4][5] (not to be confused with Happy Endings later released by Lions Gate Entertainment).
She again transitioned out of the adult film industry in 2007 and starting acting in mainstream movies like Little Bruno.[11] She also had a cameo role in the 2013 mainstream movie Speed Dragon.[4][12]
In 2012, she became a fashion reporter for Eyestrane, an online magazine focusing on Asian talent internationally.[4]
Political career
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In 2001, she actively started joining pro constitutional groups, even getting certified with the NRA.[citation needed]
On May 12, 2006, she filed as a Republican gubernatorial candidate in the state of Nevada,[4] under her birth name Melody Damayo,[2] saying one of her priorities would be anti-stalking legislation.[1] "I have nothing left to hide, everybody has seen all of me already", she said. One of her slogans was "I'm bare and honest at all times."[5] Her candidacy came three years after fellow adult film star Mary Carey's campaign for Governor of California in the 2003 recall election. On May 16, 2006, her campaign was endorsed by the liberal blog Wonkette.[13] She was criticized for running for such a position, given her past profession. She faced four other Republican candidates in the primary held on August 15, 2006 and was defeated by a wide margin by Jim Gibbons.[1] After her loss in the primaries, she joined the Libertarian Party.[4]
References
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- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 4.15 4.16 4.17 4.18 4.19 4.20 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Little Bruno (2007) - Full Cast & Crew - IMDb
- ↑ Speed Dragon (2013) - Full Cast & Crew - IMDb
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.. |
- Official website
- MELODY DAMAYO homepage
- Mimi Miyagi short documentary feature video on Philippine news website GMANews.TV
- Mimi Miyagi at the Internet Movie Database
- Mimi Miyagi on TwitterLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
- Mimi Miyagi at the Internet Adult Film Database
- Mimi Miyagi at the Adult Film Database
- MLD Elementary school - charity
- Melody Damayo[dead link] collected Wonkette articles & interviews about her gubernatorial campaign
- "Porn star's fundraiser far from typical political event"
- Mimi Miyagi video interview on burntwire.tv
- "Debbie Does HTML"
- Playboy, September 2002, pg. 16, "Now, that's a pile driver!"(subscription required)
- Pages with broken file links
- Pages using infobox person with unknown parameters
- Infobox person using ethnicity
- Articles with hCards
- Wikipedia articles needing factual verification from January 2014
- Articles with unsourced statements from December 2015
- Official website not in Wikidata
- Articles with dead external links from December 2015
- Pages containing links to subscription-only content
- 1973 births
- Living people
- American female adult models
- American pornographic film actresses
- American libertarians
- American pornographic film actors of Filipino descent
- Filipino emigrants to the United States
- Nevada Libertarians
- Nevada Republicans
- People from Davao City
- Pornographic film actors from California