Raffaëla Anderson

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Raffaëla Anderson, whose ethnic background is partly Arab, was born in Montfermeil, France, on January 8, 1976. A former adult films performer, she is now a non-fiction writer and occasionally acts in mainstream productions.

La Petite Morte, the 2003 documentary by Emmanuelle Schick Garcia about the French pornography business, includes interviews with Ms. Anderson, who relates being sexually molested as a child by an uncle. She joined the French pornography business in her late teens and left it four years later. While still in adult films, she was raped by two men who recognized her as a porn actress. In the documentary, she explains how the prosecutor and Judge in her case dismissed the rape with the attitude, “You’re an actress in pornographic films, so you can’t complain.”

Ms. Anderson played “Manu” in the 2000 art film, Baise Moi, an explicit French film about two women embarking on a journey of sex and violence. Time magazine reviewed the film and noted, “And as one of the amoral avengers, Raffaela Anderson has true star quality ...." In the 2004 mainstream film, Amour de Femme, she played a dance instructor who falls in love with a married woman.

After leaving the pornography business, Ms. Anderson wrote a book entitled, Hard, describing her experiences in that industry and decrying its abuses. In 2006, Tendre Violence, a narration of her childhood with her Muslim family in Gagny was published.