Introduction
Victoria Chlebowski is a multidisciplinary creative professional who has built a career in interior design, theatre, film production, production design, and directing. She is also widely known as Victoria Imperioli, the married name she has used professionally. Her public profile is closely connected to actor Michael Imperioli, but her own career includes a substantial body of creative work that developed independently of his acting career.
Victoria’s professional story is particularly interesting because she has worked across several creative industries. She has designed private homes, worked on historic theatres, helped establish Studio Dante in New York, contributed to the film The Hungry Ghosts, and later moved further into directing music videos. Her work shows a continuing interest in history, architecture, art, atmosphere, and storytelling.
Who Is Victoria Chlebowski?
Victoria Chlebowski is the birth name of Victoria Imperioli, according to IMDb. She has been married to actor Michael Imperioli since September 20, 1996. IMDb identifies her primarily through her work on The Hungry Ghosts, Circledrawers, and Dear Shop Girl.
While many internet searches describe Victoria mainly as Michael Imperioli’s wife, that description does not capture the full range of her professional activities. Her own professional website describes her as a New York City-based film director and multidisciplinary artist with a background in philosophy, Buddhist studies, interior design, set design, live music, production, and storytelling.
Her career has developed gradually across different creative fields. Interior design gave her experience with architecture, furniture, colour, and atmosphere. Theatre introduced her to live storytelling, while film production and directing allowed her to apply those skills to moving images.
Early Life and Educational Background
Detailed information about Victoria Chlebowski’s early childhood and exact birth date is not reliably established in major sources. Several biography websites publish specific information about her birthplace, age, and family background, but those claims are not consistently supported by authoritative records. It is therefore safer to focus on the education and career details that are documented.
Victoria’s professional biography says that she has degrees in Philosophy and Buddhist Studies. Her work has also been associated with studies of German and art history. Her education gave her exposure to subjects that extend beyond conventional interior design and helped shape her interest in culture, history, philosophy, and visual expression.
Her academic interests are particularly relevant when looking at her later design work. Her interiors often combine historical references with artistic objects and personal meaning. Her professional profile explains that her directing draws upon both Western and Eastern philosophies, as well as her experience in interior and set design, live music, and producing stories.
Victoria Chlebowski’s Interior Design Career
Interior design was one of the foundations of Victoria’s professional career. Her official profile says that she began her career as an interior designer and that her work appeared in publications including Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, InStyle, and The New York Observer. In 2007, she was selected to decorate a room for the prestigious Kips Bay Show House.
Her résumé provides further evidence of the breadth of this work. It lists private residential and event design projects in New York and Los Angeles, the Kips Bay Decorator Showhouse, and work on theatre spaces. It also records a cover feature involving her and Michael Imperioli’s home in Architectural Digest in 2003.
Victoria’s approach to interior design has generally emphasized atmosphere rather than simply following a particular decorating trend. Her interiors often incorporate historic furniture, artwork, textiles, architectural details, and carefully chosen colours. The resulting spaces tend to feel layered and personal.
This approach has also allowed her to move comfortably between residential and commercial environments. The same attention to mood that can make a home distinctive can also be used to create a particular experience in a theatre, restaurant, bar, or other public space.
Her Work With Studio Dante
One of Victoria’s most important creative projects was Studio Dante, an Off-Broadway theatre in New York that she developed with Michael Imperioli.
Her professional biography says that in 2004 she transformed a raw commercial space into Studio Dante. The theatre was designed as an intimate, Belle Époque-inspired playhouse and became known for its distinctive appearance. Her work involved much more than decorating the room; she helped create the physical environment in which the theatre’s productions took place.
Victoria’s résumé lists Studio Dante among her interior-design projects and credits the design to Victoria and master builder Ryczard Chlebowski. The same résumé describes the venue as a “jewel box” and records her work on film set design, theatre interiors, and private residences.
Her involvement with Studio Dante demonstrates how closely her design and storytelling careers are connected. A theatre requires a visual environment capable of supporting actors, stories, lighting, costumes, and audiences. Victoria’s background in interior design gave her the tools to create that environment.
Film Work and The Hungry Ghosts
Victoria also became involved in film production and production design. Her most clearly documented film project is The Hungry Ghosts, a 2009 drama written and directed by Michael Imperioli.
The International Film Festival Rotterdam lists Victoria Imperioli and Illya Radysh for production design. The festival describes the film as taking place in and around New York over a period of approximately 36 hours, with several characters whose stories gradually intersect.
The AFI Catalog also lists Victoria Imperioli as a producer and production designer. The film had its New York opening in October 2010 after premiering at the International Film Festival Rotterdam.
IMDb’s production credits likewise list Victoria Imperioli among the film’s producers.
Her involvement in The Hungry Ghosts was a natural development from her earlier work. Production design requires an understanding of locations, interiors, objects, colours, architecture, and visual atmosphere. These are all areas in which Victoria had already developed professional experience through interior and theatre design.
Other Creative and Directing Work
Victoria’s career has continued beyond traditional interior design and feature-film production. Her professional website identifies her as a film director and says that she has directed music videos for ZOPA, a New York indie-rock band, since 2021. The listed projects include A Still Life and other music-video work.
Moving into directing allowed Victoria to combine several areas of her experience. A music video requires visual composition, locations, costumes, lighting, movement, editing, and storytelling. Her previous experience with theatre and interior spaces provides a foundation for creating visually distinctive environments.
Her IMDb profile also lists Circledrawers among her professional credits and identifies her with Dear Shop Girl from 2025.
Rather than following one narrowly defined career path, Victoria has continued to expand from one creative discipline into another. Her work demonstrates a recurring interest in visual storytelling, whether the medium is a home, theatre, film, or music video.
Victoria Chlebowski and Michael Imperioli
Victoria’s marriage to Michael Imperioli is one of the most publicly discussed parts of her life. The couple married in 1996 and have collaborated on several professional projects over the years. IMDb records their marriage and identifies Victoria as Michael’s spouse.
Their relationship has included both family life and creative collaboration. Studio Dante was a shared theatrical project, while The Hungry Ghosts brought them together in film production. Their homes have also provided an opportunity for Victoria to apply her professional design skills to their private life.
People reported that the couple have two sons, Vadim and David, and that Michael is stepfather to Victoria’s daughter Isabella. The couple have generally kept much of their family life away from extensive media coverage.
Their professional relationship demonstrates a recurring pattern: Michael’s work often centres on acting, writing, and directing, while Victoria contributes design, production, visual development, and artistic direction.
Their Homes and Victoria’s Design Style
Victoria’s design work has received considerable attention through coverage of the homes she has shared with Michael Imperioli.
Architectural Digest has described one of their New York homes as a historically influenced residence filled with artwork and antiques. The couple later downsized to a historic two-bedroom New York apartment after living in Santa Barbara. Victoria designed the newer space with an Old World atmosphere inspired partly by the building’s former life as a hotel.
The apartment also reflects the couple’s interest in art and spirituality. Architectural Digest reported that they have collected artwork spanning periods from the Enlightenment through the 1930s and that their home contains a meditation room decorated with Nepalese thangka paintings.
These interiors illustrate Victoria’s preference for spaces with character. Instead of relying exclusively on modern furniture or a single design trend, she combines different historical and artistic elements to create a sense of continuity.
Her design work also demonstrates the importance of reuse and restoration. Older buildings and objects can have a visual history that gives a space personality, and Victoria has repeatedly used that history as part of the design itself.
Hospitality Projects and Scarlet
Victoria has also applied her design experience to hospitality. One of the most prominent recent projects associated with her and Michael is Scarlet, a New York City bar that opened in December 2023.
People reported that Victoria designed Scarlet’s red-hued, vintage-influenced interior. The project combined hospitality with the same historical and theatrical qualities visible in her earlier design work.
The move into hospitality makes sense within Victoria’s broader career. A successful hospitality interior needs to establish an immediate atmosphere. Lighting, colour, furniture, materials, architecture, and decorative objects all contribute to how visitors experience a venue.
Victoria’s background in theatre is also relevant here because both theatre and hospitality rely heavily on atmosphere. A theatre transports audiences into a story, while a restaurant or bar creates a particular environment for its guests.
Victoria Chlebowski’s Public Image and Private Life
Victoria has maintained a much quieter public profile than her husband. While Michael Imperioli has spent decades in front of cameras as an actor, Victoria’s career has largely developed behind the scenes.
This has resulted in an unusual public image. Many people first encounter her name through searches related to Michael Imperioli, yet her professional record shows a career with its own range of accomplishments.
There are many websites that publish claims about Victoria’s exact age, net worth, physical measurements, and other personal information. Such figures are frequently repeated without strong documentation. The available professional and industry sources provide much stronger evidence for her design, theatre, production, and directing career than for speculative financial or personal statistics.
Her professional identity is also sometimes difficult to trace because her work appears under both Victoria Chlebowski and Victoria Imperioli. Searching both names is important when researching her career.
Victoria Chlebowski’s Creative Legacy
Victoria Chlebowski’s career demonstrates how different creative disciplines can influence one another. Her interior-design experience helped prepare her for theatre design, while theatre introduced her to larger forms of visual storytelling. Film production then allowed her to bring those skills into moving images, and directing provided another way to combine visual design with narrative.
Her professional résumé records work on Studio Dante, the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles, the Lobero Theater, Kips Bay Decorator Showhouse, private residences, and film projects.
Her film work is particularly well documented through The Hungry Ghosts. AFI lists her both as producer and production designer, while the International Film Festival Rotterdam confirms her production-design credit.
Taken together, these projects show that Victoria’s career is not limited to one form of design. Her work consistently centres on creating environments that support emotion, identity, history, and storytelling.
Conclusion
Victoria Chlebowski, professionally known as Victoria Imperioli, has developed a diverse creative career spanning interior design, theatre, film production, production design, and directing. Although she is widely recognized because of her marriage to Michael Imperioli, her own professional record demonstrates years of creative work across several industries.
Her involvement with Studio Dante, her production and design work on The Hungry Ghosts, her interior-design projects, and her later directing work all reveal a consistent interest in visual storytelling. Her approach brings together history, architecture, art, philosophy, and atmosphere.
Victoria’s story is therefore broader than a traditional celebrity-spouse biography. She has developed an independent creative identity while also collaborating closely with her husband on artistic and entrepreneurial projects. Her career continues to connect the worlds of design, theatre, film, music, and hospitality.
