Hartley sought a career in pornography as a way to make a living by having sex, later telling Las Vegas Weekly, “Porn gave me easy access to women without having to date them or have a relationship.” She writes that part of her reason for choosing sex work was to be able to indulge her exhibitionistic and voyeuristic streak. She has said she chose her life’s work when she saw the 1976 erotic film The Autobiography of a Flea alone at a theater in San Francisco.

In 1982, during her sophomore year of nursing school, she started working as a stripper at the Sutter Cinema and then the Mitchell Brothers O’Farrell Theatre. She told an interviewer that she chose the name “Nina” because it was easy for Japanese tourists to say during the time she was a dancer in San Francisco, and “Hartley” because it was close to her own last name, and she “wanted a name that sounded like that of a real person.”

Her film debut was in Educating Nina (1984), where she was cast and directed by fellow performer Juliet Anderson. For many years, she toured the United States and Canada as a stripper and made personal appearances at sex shops. In 2013 she described her father’s reaction upon learning about her occupation:

He asked, ‘Why sex? Why not the violin?’ I know now that I’m sexual the way that Mozart was musical […] a life of public sexuality has, from my very first time on stage, been as natural to me as breathing.”

In the 1980s and early 1990s, Hartley starred in several of the Debbie Does Dallas film series spin-offs such as Debbie Duz Dishes (1986) and Debbie Does Wall Street (1991). In 1992, she directed her first movie, Nina Hartley’s Book of Love. She also produced and starred in a series of sex education videos for Adam & Eve.

In 1994, she began her line of instructional videos marketed under the Nina Hartley’s Guide brand Hartley played the part of Hillary Clinton in the 2008 satirical film Who’s Nailin’ Paylin?, with Lisa Ann in the role of Sarah Palin.

As of 2015, Hartley was still actively performing, and by 2017 she had appeared in more than one thousand films. She has been described by news outlets as “one of the best-known actresses in the industry” and “a legend in the adult world.”

AVN Awards
1986 Best Couples Sex Scene – Film Ten Little Maidens
1987 Best Actress – Video Debbie Duz Dishes
1989 Best Supporting Actress – Film Portrait of an Affair
1989 Best Couples Sex Scene – Film Amanda By Night II
1989 Best Couples Sex Scene – Video Sensual Escape
1991 Best Supporting Actress – Video The Last X-Rated Movie
2000 Best Group Sex Scene – Video Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women
2005 Best Specialty Tape – BDSM Nina Hartley’s Private Sessions 13
2005 Best Specialty Tape Spanking for Nina Hartley’s Guide to Spanking
2009 Best Non-Sex Performance Not Bewitched XXX
AVN Hall of Fame

XRCO Awards
1986 Best Couple Sex Scene Ball Busters
1987 Best Couple Sex Scene Peeping Tom
1987 Torrid Triad Scene Every Woman Has a Fantasy 2
1989 Female Performer of the Year
1990 Best Supporting Actress My Bare Lady
1990 Best Girl-Girl Scene Sorority Pink
1996 Hall of Fame
2000 Best Group Scene Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women

Other Industry Awards
1988 Free Speech Coalition Lifetime Achievement Award
1990 FOXE Female Fan Favorite
1991 FOXE Female Fan Favorite
1992 FOXE Female Fan Favorite
1994 Legends of Erotica Hall of Fame
1996 Hot d’Or Lifetime Achievement Award
2005 AEBN VOD Award Lifetime Achievement Award
2006 Ninfa Public Lifetime Career Award
2014 Exxxotica Fan Choice Awards Fanny Lifetime Achievement Award
2019 XBIZ Award Best Non-Sex Acting Performance (Future Darkly: Artifamily)
2020 XBIZ Award Best Non-Sex Acting Performance (Girls of Wrestling)