Victoria Silvstedt life and biography

Karin Victoria Silvstedt is a Swedish celebrity model, actress, singer, and television personality.

Victoria grew up in a close-knit family of five in a small village in Northern Sweden complete with the “midnight sun” (it was essentially dark 24 hours a day for three months each year). She was raised with, and maintains, her families’ sensibilities to appreciate discipline, hard work and community. A gifted athlete, Victoria became a world-class member of the Swedish National Ski Team, ranking as high as fourth among her future Olympian teammates in the Super-Giant Slalom.

A devastating shoulder injury prematurely ended Victoria’s Olympic dreams at the age of 16. But that was just the beginning of her career. Although at the time she was a complete teenage tomboy who had never even worn a pair of high heel shoes, Victoria’s mother and sister secretly entered her into the 1993 Miss Sweden Beauty Pageant.

Never backing down from a challenge, Victoria strapped on heels for the first time in her life and walked tentatively across the pageant stage. Victoria’s hard work and discipline helped prepare her for most things in life, but needless to say, she was surprised and overjoyed when she was declared the winner. The downhill skiing MISS SWEDEN 1993 was on her way to the Miss World Pageant in South Africa!

After the stunning beauty became a Finalist at the 1993 Miss World Pageant, Victoria was discovered by a Parisian modeling agent and began a career in high fashion working for highly selective fashion giants such as Chanel, Christian Dior, Loris Azzaro, Givenchy, Valentino and Giorgio Armani.

It was in the fall of 1996 when Victoria’s career path took another unexpected turn. Hugh Hefner offered Victoria an opportunity to do a “quick photo shoot” for Playboy. Since Playboy Magazine is not distributed in Sweden and the European equivalents have far less visibility than in the US, Victoria had no idea what she was about to do. The “quick photo shoot” and “right back to Paris” of late October turned into a December 1996 Playmate of the Month and 1997 Playmate of the Year distinction in 4 short months.

A free-spirited European, Victoria herself is often amazed at the more conservative-minded people’s reactions to a simple set of photos taken six years ago. Never to back down from a challenge, Victoria has worked extremely hard over the last years to “re-invent” herself and burnish the typical playmate image. As with everything that she does, Victoria persevered. Within a year, Victoria not only dropped the playmate stigma, but elevated herself as a world-class, high-fashion model by landing one of the most sought-after modeling contracts in the world – the GUESS? Print Ad and Spokesmodel campaign for 1998.

Victoria still remains a highly visible part of the modeling scene. She is featured on covers and countless celebrity feature interviews/layouts for mainstream magazines such as GQ, MAXIM, FHM, and GEAR both in the United States and in numerous European countries. Victoria’s professionalism, beauty and class have also enabled her to successfully represent a number of major brands as a product spokesperson including Nike, Renault, Coors, Radisson, Killian’s, and Blockbuster.

She was the 2002 Maxim Woman of the Year, MISS SWEDEN, Playmate of the Year, former Guess? Model, and has appeared on the cover of hundreds of magazines around the world. Silvstedt recently starred in Artisan Entertainment’s star-studded comedy, BOAT TRIP, opposite Cuba Gooding, Jr., Roger Moore and Vivica Fox. BOAT TRIP chronicles the tales of two bachelors who sign up for an ocean cruise in the hope of meeting lots of beautiful women, only to realize it’s exclusively full of gay men. Silvstedt also starred in the hilarious teenage comedy OUT COLD, and has expanded her talents to television, where she has hosted numerous TV specials around the world.

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