Carmella Decesare has always been destined for greatness. Brown-haired, brown-eyed and all natural, Carmella left her native Ohio to compete in Fox’s Girl Next Door: The Search for a Playboy Centerfold, and if you can believe it, she didn’t take first place. “I thought I’d meet all these girls and we’d have fun, but everybody was cutthroat,” she says. “I decided it wasn’t for me.” Lucky for her (and luckier for us), Hef offered her a test shoot, and she was voted Cybergirl of the Month in February 2003. From there, her meteoric rise through the Playboy ranks is well-documented – after being named Miss April 2003, she was bestowed with that most-coveted title, Playmate of the Year, in 2004. “Life’s too short,” advises Carmella, taking a characteristically laid-back tack. “Take each opportunity as it comes. Family and friends are the most important things in my life.” Half Italian and half Puerto Rican, Carmella knows the importance of family, and in 2007 she married an NFL quarterback, Jeff Garcia. “I admire people who start at the bottom and strive to make it to the top,” she says. “As for me, I just want to be Carmella!” We wouldn’t have her any other way.