YOU KNOW HER AS LYLA.THE PORN STAR BIKER BABE ON SONSOFANARCHY.OTT THE SET.WINTER AVE ZOLI TURNS ON HER REAL LOVE LIGHT
n Sons of Anarchy, Winter Ave Zoli's Lyla is the proverbial porn star with a heart of gold, a scene-stealing seductress and the love interest
of badass biker Opie Winston (played by Ryan Hurst). But in real life, Winter's story rivals anything you'd see on television. Born in the sticks of Bucks County, Pen n sy 1-vania, she wasjust like any other small-town American girl with a sparkle in her eye. But at the
age of 11 Winter moved to the Czech Republic with her parents, a pair of hippies turned entrepreneurs.
"The Czech Republic was freshly postcommunist when
we got there," Winter says while sitting on a couch in her West Hollywood apartment after a long day of rehearsals. "It was kind of hard to settle in. I remem-
ber feeling a h eavy energy in that city, and Prague is already heavy. A lot of people missed com-m u n i s m because they could get away with doing nothing."
Winter enrolled at the International School of Prague while her parents started a business: a nightclub.
But not just any nightclub. In postcommunist Prague the youth generation was hungry for a taste of the West and a wild party. The Zolis' place was soon voted one of the top 10
nightclubs in the world by a British magazine.
"It was their first nightclub," she says, letting loose a guffaw reminiscent of Diane Kcaton's in Annie Hall. "Basically everything they've touched has been successful."
Not unlike their daughter. Winter studied ballet and started auditioning for musical theater. By the age of 13 she was working professionally in productions that passed through Prague. At 19 she enrolled in New York City's Atlantic Theater Company, founded by David Mamet and William II. Macy. From there it was only a matter of time before Hollywood beckoned.
For some reason—can you guess?— producers tend to cast this Kate Iludson-esque beauty in roles that emphasize her deliciousness. She has played hot characters in Sex and Death 101 and The Oh in Ohio, co-starring Parker Posey and Danny DeVito. "The fact that I seem to play only porn stars, prostitutes, courtesans and various other sex-compromised women is sort of a running joke in the family," Winter says. "I'm nothing like that in real life, obviously." In fact, off the set the most reckless Winter gets is on horseback. "I spend as much time as possible at my stable in the Hollywood Hills," she says. "It keeps me sane."
Winter was no novice when the time came to step in front of the camera sans clothes. "It turns out nudity is not a problem for me," she says about her job and her playboy shoot. "It's one of those things you think about later and say, 'Yeah, I could do this for a living.'"
