Sasha Bonilova

Forget coal and iron ore – the Ukraine’s most vital natural resource is Sasha Bonilova, our Miss May 2011. A beautiful, bountiful girl with blonde hair, green eyes and a DD bust, she was raised in Lytsk, Western Ukraine, and she moved to the United States in her teens. “I didn’t speak a word of English,” she says. “I had to learn.” With eight years of study behind her, her English is proficient – not to mention her Russian, German and Polish, which she speaks with the same facility. Sasha studied interior design at Harrington College in Chicago, and hopes to use her Playmate earnings to return to school and start her own design firm. “Design is my passion,” she says. “Everywhere I go, I think ‘this color, that piece of furniture’ – I’m always designing. I can’t help it.” Sasha was living in Chicago, but we weren’t casting there at the time, so she flew all the way to Denver for a chance at a test shoot. “The casting agent said I should have gone straight to the Mansion,” she says, laughing. Hef approved her centerfold, and a few short months later, Sasha made her debut as Miss May. “I still can’t believe that I’m a Playmate,” she says. “Growing up in the Ukraine, I never thought I would have this kind of opportunity – but America is the land of dreams, this is been a dream come true.” Sasha has a very busy schedule – signing, hosting at Playboy events and managing a few interior design projects – but she wouldn’t have it any other way. “It’s more than a job,” she says. “It’s a new life.”