Victoria Chlebowski: Design Career, Michael Imperioli, and Family

Have you ever searched for Victoria Chlebowski because of Michael Imperioli and then discovered that her own creative work reaches far beyond being an actor’s wife? Her story moves through theater, interior design, film production, music videos, and the shared projects she has built with her husband.

Victoria Chlebowski is widely known professionally as Victoria Imperioli. She and Michael Imperioli have been married since 1996, but their relationship is also a long creative partnership. They co-founded an Off-Broadway theater, worked together on film, built distinctive New York spaces, and later opened a bar shaped by Victoria’s design eye.

Her public profile is quieter than Michael’s, yet there is enough well-documented work to show a clear career of her own. The strongest part of her story is not celebrity. It is the way art, design, theater, and family have stayed connected through different stages of her life.

Quick Bio

Full Name	Victoria Chlebowski
Professional Name	Victoria Imperioli
Profession	Interior and set designer, director, producer
Education	Studied philosophy and German in Munich; studied art history at Parsons and The New School
Spouse	Michael Imperioli
Marriage	1996
Children	Isabella, Vadim, and David
Theater Work	Co-founder and co-artistic director of Studio Dante
Film Work	Producer and production designer on The Hungry Ghosts
Recent Creative Work	Music video direction and hospitality design

Who Is Victoria Chlebowski?

Victoria Chlebowski is a designer, producer, and director who is married to actor, writer, and musician Michael Imperioli. She is often called Victoria Imperioli in professional credits and media profiles.

Many people first encounter her name while reading about The Sopranos star. That search can make her seem like a private figure standing beside a famous husband. Her work tells a fuller story.

Victoria helped create Studio Dante, an Off-Broadway theater in New York. She designed sets and costumes for its productions. She later worked in interior design, produced and designed Michael’s film The Hungry Ghosts, directed music videos for his band ZOPA, and helped shape the look of their hospitality projects.

Her career is creative but not limited to one field. That range is one reason a short “celebrity wife” description misses so much of what she has actually done.

Art and Study Came Before the Public Attention

Victoria Chlebowski’s interest in design was backed by formal study.

Architectural Digest reported that she studied philosophy and German in Munich before turning to art history at Parsons and The New School in New York. That mix of subjects helps explain the look of many spaces she later designed. Her work often draws from older European styles, art history, theater, and handmade details.

She did not build a public career around one fixed job title. Design became a thread that ran through homes, theater spaces, film sets, and later a New York bar.

That kind of career can be harder to summarize than acting credits or a corporate title. It also gives a better sense of Victoria Chlebowski’s creative identity. She has often worked on the atmosphere around a story, whether that story is happening on a stage, inside a film, or in a room people use every day.

Meeting Michael Imperioli and Building a Family

Victoria Chlebowski and Michael Imperioli met in New York in the 1990s. People reported that Victoria owned a bar called Ciel Rouge at the time.

The couple married in 1996. They later built a family that includes Victoria’s daughter Isabella and their sons, Vadim and David. Michael has spoken publicly as Isabella’s stepfather, while the family has generally kept its home life more private than his acting career.

Their marriage has lasted through major changes in Michael’s public life, including the huge success of The Sopranos. At the same time, their shared creative work kept growing.

This is an important part of Victoria Chlebowski’s story because the relationship has not been limited to red carpets or public appearances. The two have repeatedly made things together.

Studio Dante Became a Shared Creative Home

One of their most important joint projects was Studio Dante.

Playbill reported that Victoria and Michael co-founded the theater in the early 2000s. The Los Angeles Times later described Victoria as a co-artistic director. Studio Dante focused on new plays and gave the couple a place to develop work outside mainstream film and television.

Victoria did much more than help run the space. Backstage reported that she designed the theater itself and created sets and costumes for its productions.

That meant the visual world of the plays carried her hand. A small theater needs people who can move between creative and practical jobs. Victoria’s work fit that environment well.

Her father also helped with the physical renovation of the theater. Backstage described him as a contractor who guided part of the work. That family contribution adds another layer to Studio Dante. It was not simply a venue rented for a project. It was a space they shaped.

Set and Costume Design Put Her Work on Stage

Theater design asks a designer to solve many problems at once.

A set must support the actors. It has to fit the story. It must work in a real room with real limits. Costumes also need to tell the audience something about each character without becoming a distraction.

Victoria Chlebowski handled both set and costume design for Studio Dante productions. Playbill credited her in those roles for the 2007 production of Chicken.

The work is easy to overlook because the performer receives most of the public attention. Yet a theater’s visual language can change the way an audience feels about a scene before anyone speaks.

For Victoria, this was also a bridge between her interest in interiors and her work in dramatic storytelling.

Interior Design Became Another Major Part of Her Career

Victoria Chlebowski later developed a stronger public profile as an interior designer.

Architectural Digest featured a New York home that she and her design firm, SVE New York, renovated. The article described a detailed interior filled with historical references, rich fabrics, custom woodwork, and art.

The project showed that her theater instincts could move into residential design. Instead of creating a set that would disappear after a production closed, she was creating a place for daily life.

Her design choices were not about following a simple trend. They leaned toward mood, history, and a sense of story. That approach continued in later homes she shared with Michael.

In a 2023 Architectural Digest home tour, Michael described Victoria as both an interior designer and set designer and said the apartment’s look was her vision. The rooms mixed antiques, art, and details that created what the couple called an old-world feeling.

The Hungry Ghosts Expanded Her Film Work

Victoria Chlebowski also worked behind the scenes on The Hungry Ghosts, Michael Imperioli’s feature directing debut.

The International Film Festival Rotterdam lists Victoria as a production designer on the 2009 film. The American Film Institute also credits her as a producer and production designer.

That combination is notable. Producing deals with the work required to get a film made. Production design shapes the visual world the audience sees.

Doing both placed Victoria on two very different sides of the project. She was involved in how the film came together and in how it looked.

The Hungry Ghosts premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2009. It gave Victoria another way to use the same visual and organizational skills she had developed in theater.

A Creative Partnership That Keeps Changing Form

The Imperiolis did not stop working together after Studio Dante and The Hungry Ghosts.

Michael later formed the indie rock band ZOPA. People reported that Victoria has directed music videos for the band since 2021.

That move makes sense when viewed beside her earlier work. Directing a music video combines image, rhythm, performance, mood, and design. Those are all areas she had already touched through theater, interiors, and film.

The medium changed again, but the creative language stayed familiar.

This pattern is one of the most interesting parts of Victoria Chlebowski’s career. She has not needed to stay inside one professional box. A stage, a home, a movie, and a music video can all become places where visual choices tell a story.

Scarlet Brought Design Into Hospitality

Victoria and Michael also moved their shared creative work into hospitality.

People reported that they opened Scarlet in New York City in December 2023. Victoria designed the bar, which uses a rich red color scheme and a vintage-inspired look.

A bar is different from a private home because it has to work for many people at once. It also has to create a mood quickly. Guests decide how a place feels within minutes of walking through the door.

For Victoria Chlebowski, that kind of project brought together several parts of her past. She had experience with bars from the period when she owned Ciel Rouge. She had theater and set design experience. She had also spent years working on detailed interiors.

Scarlet became another example of a project where design and everyday experience meet.

Her Homes Show the Same Design Philosophy

The Imperiolis’ homes have received attention because they do not look like standard celebrity interiors.

Architectural Digest has featured more than one of their New York spaces. The rooms use antiques, dramatic fabrics, old art, and references to earlier periods instead of a clean modern style.

Victoria’s approach is personal. The goal appears to be comfort and imagination rather than a showroom look.

In their 2023 home tour, Michael explained that Victoria designed spaces to feel calming, inspiring, and removed from the speed of modern New York. A former closet had even been turned into a meditation room.

The home also included painted screens once used at Studio Dante. That detail connects the couple’s current life with an earlier creative chapter. Old work was not simply stored away. It became part of the place where they lived.

Family, Art, and Spiritual Life

Michael and Victoria have also spoken about practicing Tibetan Buddhism.

Architectural Digest described their meditation space and the role spiritual practice has in their home. This is one area where design and daily life meet in a direct way. The room was created for an activity they actually practice rather than as a decorative theme.

Their children are now older, and the couple has described entering a quieter stage of family life. People referred to them as empty nesters while discussing their more recent New York chapter.

That change appears to have given them room for new projects. Their work with music, interiors, and Scarlet shows that the creative partnership continues even after the busiest years of raising children at home.

Why Victoria Has Her Own Story

It is easy for search results to reduce Victoria to one relationship. That approach leaves out the part of her life that is best supported by real work.

She helped build an Off-Broadway theater. She designed sets and costumes. She studied subjects that fed directly into her visual style. She worked as a producer and production designer on a feature film. She created interiors and moved into music-video direction.

Those projects also show continuity. They are not random side jobs. Most involve space, mood, art, and storytelling.

Her marriage to Michael Imperioli matters because so much of their creative work has been shared. But the collaboration makes more sense when Victoria is seen as a creative professional rather than only as the spouse of an actor.

Victoria Today

In recent years, Victoria has continued to work across design and creative direction.

Her home-design work remains visible through major design publications. Her direction for ZOPA added music video work to her record. Scarlet gave her another public interior project in New York.

She and Michael also continue to be connected through art, music, spiritual practice, and the spaces they create.

There is no need to turn that life into a celebrity mystery. The documented work is more interesting. Victoria has spent years making places and images that support other forms of storytelling, often without placing herself at the center.

Final Thoughts

Victoria is best known to many people as Michael Imperioli’s wife, but her own path has moved through theater, design, film, directing, and hospitality.

Studio Dante showed her ability to build a creative space from the ground up. The Hungry Ghosts brought her into film production and production design. Her interiors showed a strong personal style. Her music-video and hospitality work continued that same interest in mood and visual storytelling.

The result is a career that feels connected even though it crosses several fields. Victoria has built much of it behind the scenes, but the work itself is visible in theaters, films, homes, videos, and public spaces.

For another story about a creative professional with a career beyond a famous family name, explore our profile of Annie Costner on LakewoodScoop.co.uk.