Izabella St. James

Izabella St. James is a television personality and author born in Kraków, Poland, on September 25, 1975. She is best known as the author of the 2006 memoir Bunny Tales: Behind Closed Doors at the Playboy Mansion, which detailed her time living at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles as a girlfriend of editor and publisher Hugh Hefner.

St. James spent her early childhood in Poland under Communist rule before moving to Athens, Greece, with her parents at age ten. Her family subsequently relocated to Canada, residing in British Columbia before settling in Ontario. She attended high school in Kitchener-Waterloo for five years, graduating with an award for academic excellence. She then pursued higher education at McGill University in Montreal, where she shifted from a double major in political science and history to a humanistic studies major covering art history, classical music, literature, and Spanish.

Following her undergraduate studies, St. James attended Pepperdine University School of Law in Malibu, California. During her legal studies, she completed study abroad programs at Universidad Complutense in Madrid, Spain, and at the Jagiellonian University in Poland. She earned her Juris Doctor degree a semester early in December 2001, though she did not complete the bar examination the following February.

In September 2000, St. James met Hugh Hefner and began attending parties at the Playboy Mansion. She joined his group of girlfriends in January 2002 after completing law school and moved into the Playboy Mansion as an official girlfriend in April 2002. She lived at the mansion for two years until May 2004, when she moved out and ended her relationship with Hefner.

Since leaving the Playboy Mansion, St. James has engaged in writing and acting. In August 2006, Running Press published her memoir, Bunny Tales: Behind Closed Doors at the Playboy Mansion. Her acting and television credits include appearances on shows such as Bernie Mac, The Sharon Osbourne Show, VH1 Fabulous Life of Hugh Hefner, MTV Cribs Playboy Mansion, Playboy's 50th Anniversary Celebration, and The Surreal Life. She also appeared in films including Ninja Cheerleaders, Thunder Over Reno, and The Goods: The Don Ready Story.

In 2015, St. James starred in the inaugural season of the Polish reality television series Żony Hollywood (Hollywood Wives), which was based on The Real Housewives franchise. Outside of her media work, she manages a rescue service for pugs and is recognized on social media by the name "The Pug Queen."