Dalene Kurtis Bio 
Dalene Kurtis is an American glamour model, fashion designer, and entrepreneur. Born Dalene Lynn Kurhajian on November 12, 1977, in Apple Valley, California, she has also been credited as Dalene Curtis, Dalene Kurhajian, and Darlene Curtis. Playboy named her its September 2001 Playmate at 23. She was later named Playmate of the Year 2002. Her appearance came in the 2000s, as Playboy's print tradition began to share space with an expanding online presence.
Kurtis has enhanced breasts, blue eyes and blond hair. Her measurements are 34-24-35.
Dalene Kurtis spent three and a half years working for an insurance firm before modeling offered a very different career. After putting herself through business college, she entered a Venus Swimwear competition in 2000 and won, giving her the first substantial break from office work. In January 2001, she moved to Santa Monica and began modeling for Budweiser, while appearances connected with Hawaiian Tropic put her increasingly close to the glamour industry she had wanted to enter since her teens.
Playboy followed through a personal connection rather than a conventional agency introduction. While participating in a Miss Hawaiian Tropic pageant, Kurtis came to the attention of someone in Hugh Hefner’s circle; Playboy’s own account recalls a meeting with Hefner at a Mansion party that led to an invitation to test for the magazine. Hefner told Kurtis that her short blonde hair and shy smile reminded him of Doris Day. She subsequently moved into the Playboy Mansion as her relationship with the magazine developed.
The following year brought another major Playboy distinction when Kurtis was selected as Playmate of the Year 2002. She later admitted that she had not expected to win, describing herself as highly self-critical and initially finding it difficult even to believe that she would appear in Playboy. Looking back, she called her period at the Mansion “the happiest time in my life,” and her association with the magazine remained strong enough for Playboy to mark her tenth anniversary with a Facetime interview.
Kurtis also developed businesses beyond modeling. Drawing on the commercial background that preceded Playboy, she worked as a fashion designer and jewelry entrepreneur and launched clothing and accessory projects of her own. She additionally served as a spokesmodel for Hollywood Tans, extending her professional work into the beauty and tanning business rather than relying exclusively on magazine appearances.
The contrast in Kurtis’s career is unusually clear: business school led to an insurance desk, a 2000 swimwear competition led to professional modeling, and within roughly two years she had moved from office work to the Playboy Mansion and the magazine’s highest annual Playmate honor. Her later fashion, jewelry and promotional work added another dimension to that trajectory. What Playboy presented as a success story was, in practical terms, a remarkably rapid professional change built on a decision to leave a secure nine-to-five career and finally pursue the modeling ambition she had held since adolescence.
