Born into a middle-class Jewish family in Corabia, Romania as Paula Iliescu, she changed her name to "Pola" in tribute to the Polish actress and singer Pola Negri.

Illéry made her screen debut appearing in French films in the late-1920s and continuing in roles until the end of the 1930s.

She appeared as the lead in René Clair's musical comedy Under the Roofs of Paris (1930).

Illéry married a United States Army Air Corps Major Charles H. Greiner (1914–1947)[4] during World War II and moved to the United States with him on May 26, 1946.

She later married James Gibson and the couple moved to Palos Verdes, California, where Illéry lived for the rest of her life.