Mimi Miyagi

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Mimi Miyagi
Born Melody Damayo
July 3, 1973 (1973-07-03) (age 38)
Davao City, Philippines
Other names Mimi Miyagi
Ethnicity Filipina
Height 5 ft 3 in (1.60 m)
Website
http://www.mimimiyagi.com/

Melody Damayo (born July 3, 1973) is a Filipina porn star best known as Mimi Miyagi.

Contents

[edit] Early life and education

Melody Damayo was born in Davao City, the second of four children born 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.[1]

Damayo was sent back to Mindanao for high school, and her family enrolled her in a Seventh Day Adventist academy in Bukidnon, hoping she would absorb Filipino values.[1]

After finishing high school, she enrolled in an Adventist college, but she dropped out in her second year. She says she had been a disc jockey on the college radio station and had decided on a career in show business.[1]

Damayo returned to Los Angeles and obtained a scholarship to the American College for Fashion Merchandising, but once again she dropped out without graduating,[2] when she'd run out of money and begun looking for jobs.

As she was now of legal age, she began performing as a pornographic actress, starting by working with Ed Powers.[2]

[edit] Adult film career

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. She says she cloaked her actual nationality in Asian mysticism.[1]

In 1996, she retired from porn acting and moved to Henderson, Nevada. She married a former professional football player. She hired a consultant to set up a website, MimiMiyagi.com, then got embroiled in a legal battle over control of the domain name. She then learned HTML and created a new website.

She created the men's magazine Oriental Dolls (now known as Asian Hotties).

In 1999, Damayo began doing movie production and talent scouting for Metro Home Video and produced the series she entitled FantAsiany, of which there are now three sequels.

[edit] Mainstream films

Nearly bankrupted by her divorce, in September 2003, "Mimi" came out of retirement, and appeared in the adult film Happy Ending (not to be confused with Happy Endings later released by Lions Gate Entertainment).

In May 2005, Damayo began work in her first bit role in a mainstream comedy, Come Again.

In December 2006, "Mimi" returned to adult films with great fanfare after her failed run on the Republican ticket for Governor of Nevada.

[edit] Political career

Campaign poster, Nevada gubernatorial election, 2006.
Courtesy of Mimi Miyagi.

On May 12, 2006, she filed as a Republican gubernatorial candidate in the state of Nevada, under her birth name, Melody Damayo. "I have nothing left to hide, everybody has seen all of me already." she said. One of her slogan was "I'm bare and honest at all times.[3]" Her candidacy came three years after fellow porn 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.[4] 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.[5] After her loss in the primaries, she joined the Libertarian Party.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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