The Shannon Twins

You’ll be seeing double with Karissa and Kristina Shannon, Misses July and August 2009. Hailing from the resort city of Clearwater, Florida, these identical twins are all natural, with blonde hair and dark blue eyes. The twin twosome went from waiting tables to being waited on in some of LA’s hottest restaurants, all between their eighteenth and nineteenth birthdays. The twins were finalists in our 55th Anniversary Playmate Search, and not only did Hef approve their Centerfold – he asked them both to be his girlfriends, and offered them a suite in the Mansion, complete with his famed rotating bed. They didn’t have to think twice – they’re twins, after all – they moved in, and their first episode of The Girls Next Door was the most-watched season premiere in the show’s history. Karissa and Kristina fit right in at the Mansion, and on sunny days you’d see them on the courts, trading serves in matching tennis whites – or sunning in the nude by the pool, being served by the wait staff. “We’re very close,” says Kristina. “I mean, we’re twins – we see each other every day.” That being said, the Shannon twins don’t want to be known as such – they are two different girls, and they have different things going on in their lives. “We have a lot of the same goals,” says Karissa. “We want to model, act and sing – but we want to be identified as separate people.” The girls moved out of the Mansion in 2010 to pursue other goals, but they remain close friends with their former boyfriend. “We have very fond memories of movie nights with Hef at the Mansion,” says Kristina. “We used to watch gangster movies, like Scarface and Goodfellas.” Hef showed them the ropes in Hollywood, and the twins have his blessing in all other relationships and business endeavors. Speaking of which, Karissa and Kristina appeared on Celebrity Big Brother, and took star turns as pole dancers in Sofia Coppola’s purgatorial drama Somewhere. “Right now we’re filming a reality series in Argentina,” says Karissa, “and we’re coming out with a line of fitness DVDs.” They say that happiness was born a twin, and that’s surely the case for the happy-go-lucky Shannon twins.