Karrine Steffans

Infobox Person
name = Karrine Steffans


image_size =
caption =
birth_date = birth date and age|1978|8|24
birth_place = St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, U.S.
education =
occupation = author
spouse =
parents =
children =
years_active = 2000–present
URL = [http://www.karrine.com]

Karrine Steffans (born August 24, 1978) is a former music video performer and porn star turned New York Times best selling author twice over upon scribing both "Confessions of a Video Vixen" in 2005 and "The Vixen Diaries" in 2007. Her 2005 autobiography spanned the first twenty-five years of her life, beginning with her tumultuous and abusive upbringing, a violent rape at thirteen and her years as an exotic dancer beginning at just sixteen years old. The memoir goes on to vividly describe her abusive marriage at the age of seventeen, her subsequent divorce and single motherhood by the age of twenty-one when she then moved to Los Angeles in December 1999.

Discovered by music video director Hype Williams, Steffans first appeared in Jay Z's "Hey Papi" music video in June 2000 and went on to star in a dozen other music videos until retiring from the field. She is very well-known to have slept with many artists and has been rumored to have performed sexual favors for work. In the interim, Steffans was re-discovered in October 2000 by motion picture director F. Gary Gray who cast her opposite Larenz Tate and Vin Diesel in "A Man Apart", released by New Line Cinema in 2003.

Upon publishing "Confessions of a Video Vixen" with HarperCollins Publishers [cite book
last = Steffans
first = Karrine
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Confessions of a Video Vixen
publisher = HarperCollins
date = 6/28/2005
location =
pages = 224 pages
url = http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780060842420/Confessions_of_a_Video_Vixen/index.aspx
doi =
id =
isbn = 9780060842420 ] , Steffans departed on a promotional tour and has been interviewed by many journalists in the world including Bill O'Reilly, Geraldo Rivera, Donnie Deutsch and in April 2006 was a guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Entering the New York Times best selling list at number seven and peaking at number five, Confessions stayed on the list for over twenty weeks in hardcover and spent several more weeks on the list a year and a half later in paperback.

"The Vixen Diaries", published by Grand Central Publishing/Hachette Book Group USA (formerly Warner Books) [cite book
last = Steffans
first = Karrine
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = The Vixen Diaries
publisher = Grand Central Publishing
date = 09/25/2007
location =
pages = 288 pages
url = http://www.hachettebookgroupusa.com/books/19/0446582263/index.html
doi =
id =
isbn = 9780446582261 ] , shared a similar fate, entering the New York Times best seller's list at number six in the politically charged fall of 2007, even ahead of Bill Clinton's latest book. "Diaries" read much differently than "Confessions" as it told the story of a woman on the mend, working her way through a less than savory past and into a brighter future.

Steffans has been featured in many magazines internationally including British Elle, Marie Claire Australia, FHM Australia, Singapore and Spain, just to name a few. Steffans has completed her third book entitled,"The Vixen Manual", a book about love, sex and relationships through the eyes of a woman. The book will be published by Grand Central Publishing in July 2009.

Steffans has been linked to many of music, sports and Hollywood's celebrities, most notably, political satirist Bill Maher to whom she was once engaged and rapper Lil' Wayne with whom she was rumored to also have been engaged. She is currently dating Darius McCrary of ABC's "Family Matters" fame and who most recently lent his voice to the character of Jazz in director Michael Bay's "Transformers" released in 2007. The two are rumored to be secretly wedded. At times the two deny the rumors though they wear matching rings on their left hand ring fingers. They might be wed in the spring of 2009.In June 2008, Steffans reportedly sent a text message to celebrity blogger Perez Hilton that stated she had been choked and threatened by her reputed lover Darius McCrary

References

External links

* [http://www.karrine.com/ Karrine Steffans Official Site]
* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1153349/ Karrine Steffans on IMDB Internet Movie Database]
* [http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Video-Vixen-Karrine-Steffans/dp/0060842423 Karrine on Amazon]
* [http://aalbc.com/reviews/karrine_steffans.htm African American Literary Book Club]
* [http://www.zimbio.com/Karrine+Steffans Karrine's Zimbio Page]
* [http://www.hiphollywood.com/?cat=1615 Hip Hollywood Interview]
* [http://www.youtube.com/results?q=karrine&search_type= Karrine Steffans on YouTube]
* [http://www.blackvoices.com/blogs/2008/06/09/darius-mccrary-for-the-love-of-superhead/ AOL Black Voices Article]
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/09/books/bestseller/1009besthardnonfiction.html "New York Times" Bestseller List]
* [http://www.askmen.com/toys/top_10_300/302_top_10_list.html Ask Men Top 10 Women in Hip Hop]
* [http://www.oprah.com/tows/slide/200604/20060410/slide_20060410_350_104.jhtml Karrine Steffans on the Oprah Winfrey Show]
* [http://www.vibe.com/celebs/feature.html?id=55 "VIBE Magazine" page]