Victoria Chlebowski is the wife of actor, writer, director, and musician, Michael Imperioli. Chlebowski’s husband is best known for his role as Christopher Moltisanti in the HBO crime drama The Sopranos (1999–2007), which earned him the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2004.
Chebowski may not have any notable fame in the entertainment industry unlike her husband, she, nonetheless is quite a successful entrepreneur on her own. What’s more, she could also be taken as just another example of an American dream.
Know Chlebowski’s early struggles, her relationship with the Sopranos actor as well as her life as an independent businesswoman all in the article below.
Victoria Chlebowski Bio, Age, Parents
Chebowski was born in 1966 in Russia (the Soviet Union era). As of 2021, she is 55 years of age. She grew up in a Jewish family and is a devout Christian.
Moreover, her parents were natives of Russia who moved to the United States. Victoria holds a Russian-American nationality and follows the Christian religion. Regarding Victoria Imperioli’s educational background, he attended a Private High School in California and then went to Elite College in the USA.
Victoria Chlebowski Fled Communist Russia And Anti Semitism
The stage designer Victoria at 16, fled her native Ukraine with her mother, Raisa Chlebowski in 1976 because of anti-Semitism. Raisa worked in real estate in the late 2000s. After coming to the states, Victoria and her family lived in a railroad apartment which she said was “crappy.”
Her stepfather from Poland, Ryczard Chlebowski, is a master artisan who did the custom paneling and moldings of the 19th-century factory building in Tribeca. He has also collaborated with his daughter and her business partner on the renovation of a theater in Chelsea.
Chebowski studied art, philosophy, and German in Munich before taking up art history at Parsons and The New School, a private art and design college in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City
Chlebowski Is An Interior Designer
Victoria owns a design firm, SVE New York with her business partner, Sonya Chang in New York. Victoria and her husband were also the renovators of the 19th-century factory building in Tribeca. Additionally, the Russian-born American and her beloved, Imperioli are the owners of a popular bohemian bar in Chelsea.
Ms. Imperioli admits she prefers recycling furniture rather than buying new ones. Chlebowoski and Imperioli’s partnership has also launched an Off-Broadway theater, Studio Dante where the former serves as artistic director.
What many don’t know is the fact that Victoria also has a credit in a film titled, Joy de V, a 2013 New York noir dramatic thriller film from the director and writer, Nadia Szold.
Victoria Chlebowski And Her Husband Michael Imperioli Knew Each Other Since College
Chlebowski and Imperioli married on September 19, 1996, four years before the premiere of Sopranos and five months after their first meeting. the couple had known each other since college. They met around 1995/96 at a bar, Ms. Imperioli said during an interview in May 2007 while sitting in the 66-seat theater. The scenic designer, however, refused to tell the bar’s location citing it was too personal to ‘say the name.’
Together, Chlebowski and Imperioli have three children, Vadim, David, and Isabella. The latter is from Victoria’s previous relationship. Isabella, however, has been the legal daughter of Emmy winner for quite some time.
The family split their time between Santa Barbara, California, and in the Tribeca neighborhood of New York City. Their eldest son, Vadim studied Film at Purchase College and graduated from Santa Barbara High School in California.
Victoria Chlebowski And Her Husband Follow Buddhism
In college, Chlebowski pursued some philosophy and read a lot of Buddhist books, which she also shared with her then-future husband, Imperioli.
Then around 2016, the couple began attending Buddhist teachings in New York City. The first teachings they attended were by Gelek Rinpoche, who has been the teacher of Allen Ginsberg and Phillip Glass. Chlebowski and her actor spouse go to all of Gelek Rinpoche’s teachings that they can manage, as well as to the teachings of Sogyal Rinpoche and the Dalai Lama. In July 2020, the parents of three took refuge with Garchen Rinpoche.
The Imperioli couple –are also the students of Tibetan Buddhist lama Namkha Rinpoche and has even set up a center for Rinpoche to teach in Tribeca.
Imperioli says Buddhism has brought a lot of benefits and changes to his wife, Chlebowski. The New York-born actor claims the practice has increased her patience, tolerance, peace of mind. He also mentioned how his wife being kinder to herself has inspired him and his children.
The couple practices meditation in the morning, as well as shortly before bed.
Victoria Clebowski Is Also A Film Producer; She Now Is Into Documentaries
Chlebowski served as a producer for her husband’s 2009 directorial film Hungry Ghosts. As of the present, she along with her husband of twenty-five years are working on a new film with a spiritual bent. In the movie, they are being executive producers.
Their work is about a documentary about the Tenzin Gyatso Scholars Program. This program sponsors Tibetan monastics to study neuroscience, biology, physics, and the social sciences in the United States. It is a project of the Tenzin Gyatso Institute. The institute focuses on advancing the Dalai Lama’s vision and values.
Victoria Chlebowski Got Covid-19
In April 2020, Chlebowski’s husband revealed the time when he believed he had contracted coronavirus yet didn’t get tested. The Sopranos actor said he was extremely ill when he arrived in California from New York on March 1st, 2020, but didn’t go to the doctor.
The father of three also believed the virus also spread to one of his sons and wife, Chebowski. The actor further said his family was feeling “pretty sick” but “fortunately,” weren’t ill enough to require hospital treatment.
Imperioli added:
“My wife and one of my kids got it. We had most of the symptoms, We didn’t get tested because we weren’t sick enough to go to the hospital, We didn’t want to go to the hospital, We haven’t been tested … We’re better now but we were pretty sick.”
Meanwhile, Chlebowski’s husband also admitted he thought he’d get fired from The Sopranos on his first day. He had failed to tell producers he couldn’t drive, which was important as his character often served as Tony Soprano’s (the late James Gandolfini) driver.
Police Arrested Victoria Chlebowski’s Son For Painting Swastika
In November 2016, the authorities arrested Chlebowski’s son, Vadim Imperioli for spray-painting a swastika in a dorm at Purchase College. The captain of the NYPD then said Vadim would be facing a charge of criminal mischief in the fourth degree. Victoria’s son, once an aspiring stand-up comedian, had previously served three years’ probation for vandalism in California and was also in the case of “criminal mischief.”
Victoria And Her Husband Sold Their Chelseas Theater For $4.1Million
In July 2010, Chlebowski and her partner put the Chelsea walk-up on the market for $5.5 million. It, however, took several re-listings and price cuts before the building sold for$4.15 million, according to then-city records.
Also worth mentioning is the fact that, during the same period, the entrepreneur couple added another mixed-use space to their portfolio at 499 Canal Street, which they bought in 2007 for $2.4 million. They listed it to provide spill-over space for Studio Dante offices.
What also deserves a mention is that Chlebowski’s net worth could be well in the million. Besides, her husband’s net worth is an estimated $20million.
