Dr. Victoria Nika Zdrok (born March 3, 1973 in Kiev, Soviet Union) is a Playboy Playmate, Penthouse Pet of the Year, a star of elaborate adult videos, an attorney, a clinical psychologist, sex therapist and former goodwill ambassador.

As a child in the former Soviet Union, Victoria listened to Voice of America on her father's clandestine radio and diligently studied English with the hope of one day coming to America. In 1989, at the age of 16, she was honored as the first Soviet teenager allowed to come to the U.S. as a foreign exchange student. She arrived on an academic scholarship, as she describes it, as "a sort of ambassador of goodwill and perestroika and glasnost."

Adult life

Zdrok graduated from Pensacola Junior College in Florida at age 17 and West Chester University in Pennsylvania at age 18 with a B.A., Summa Cum Laude. She entered graduate school where she studied for a joint law and psychology program at Villanova University and Hahnemann Medical School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She received her J.D. degree at the Law School and a subsequent M.A. and Ph.D. in clinical psychology. Her dissertation on "The Effect of Judicial Instructions on Jury Perception of Defendants' Refusal to Testify" was recommended for the Law Psychology Awards. She aimed to specialize in the "area where law and psychology intersect" and originally intended to become a jury consultant. She passed the bar exam on her first try. She later completed a post-doctoral qualification in sex therapy at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

She was crowned Philadelphia's "Best Beauty" in August 1994. She has appeared in videos, movies, talk shows and magazines. She became October 1994's Playboy Playmate of the Month. In an interview, Zdrok claimed she would have been selected Playmate of the Year over Julie Lynn Cialini except for false rumors Zdrok said were circulated about her.

She posed for Penthouse in June 2002 as their Pet of the Month, because "the unabashed, in-your-face sexuality that Penthouse has" appealed to her more than Playboy did. In 2004, at the age of 30, she was named Penthouse Pet of the Year. She is the second woman, after Linn Thomas, to be both a Playboy Playmate and a Penthouse Pet.

At one point, she dated Prince Albert II of Monaco.

As of mid-2007, Zdrok is involved in writing the books The Naked Truth: Confessions of Centerfolds and Those Who Love Them, about the centerfold industry, and a book on the psychology of sexual fantasy. In addition to writing a monthly column in Penthouse magazine she has just had her new book "Dr. Z on Scoring: How to Pick Up, Seduce and Hook Up With Hot Women" published.

Marriage to Alexander

As a seventeen-year-old foreign exchange student, she sought legal advice as to how to extend her student visa, and chose a well-known Philadelphia lawyer, Alexander Zdrok, because he spoke fluent Russian. Alexander was more than twice her age at thirty-seven, twice married, and twice divorced. Also, unknown to her at the time, he was representing mob boss John Stanfa, who eventually was sentenced to prison in 1995. Alexander subsequently proposed that Victoria marry him to get a green card and to permanently stay in America. Victoria and Alexander married in Las Vegas on October 26, 1990.

Divorce

Alexander Zdrok was disbarred by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 1991 for forgery and deception. He was abusive to Victoria, once being arrested and jailed. There were purported threats from her husband's Mafia connections. In 1996, now 23 years old, Victoria sought a divorce. By this time a sought-after model, Victoria divorced with an agreement to pay her ex-husband 15% of all her future earnings from "pictorials, television, national and international films" and related ventures for ten years after their divorce.

In January 2001, Alexander sued her for monetary damages under the agreement, which Victoria now claimed was invalid. She also sought to seal the trial, but the court declined to do so. Victoria appealed and lost this issue. On December 9, 2003, she settled with Alexander for US$50,000. Afterwards, her ex-husband’s lawyer, Elliot Goldberg, expressed disappointment over not being able to reveal intimate details about Victoria.

In March 2004, after Victoria was named Penthouse Pet of the Year, Alexander again sued to overturn the most recent settlement. The judge chastised Alexander for filing the suit.

Family

During the trial in 2002, Victoria bore her first baby, a daughter. She was engaged to be married as of 2003.

Arriving in America two years after Victoria was her sister, a Ph.D. archeologist. Her sister also models under the names Tatiana Zdrok and Lara Buenfil and has posed topless along with their mother on the Howard Stern show.

Zdrok speaks six languages: English, Ukrainian, Russian, French, Spanish and German.

Zdrok said she plans to "phase out" her adult entertainment career. She earned a post-graduate degree in sex therapy with the goal of becoming "the Doctor Ruth of the new generation".

Appearances in Playboy special editions

• Playboy's Playmate Review Vol. 11 May 1995 - pages 84-91.
• Playboy's Book of Lingerie Vol. 58 November 1997 - Gen Nishino, pages 15-15.
• Playboy's Nude Playmates April 1998 - cover, pages 1, 3-5.
• Playboy's Girls of Summer May 1998.
• Playboy's Book of Lingerie Vol. 62 July 1998 - pages 64-65.
• Playboy's Girlfriends July 1998 - pages 22-33.
• Playboy's Book of Lingerie Vol. 63 September 1998 - pages 6-7.
• Playboy's Book of Lingerie Vol. 64 November 1998 - pages 40-43.
• Playboy's Nudes December 1998 - pages 24-25, 48-51.
• Playboy's Book of Lingerie Vol. 65 January 1999 - front & back cover, pages 1, 14-17, 90-91.
• Playboy's Celebrating Centerfolds Vol. 2 April 1999 - pages 10-11.
• Playboy's Girlfriends September 1999 - pages 60-65.
• Playboy's Barefoot Beauties Vol. 1 December 1999.
• Playboy's Wet & Wild December 1999.
• Playboy's Book of Lingerie Vol. 71 January 2000 - pages 22-25.
• Playboy's Book of Lingerie Vol. 73 May 2000.
• Playboy's Sexy 100 February 2003.