Paris Whitney Hilton (born February 17, 1981) is an American socialite, media personality, and businesswoman. Born in New York City, she is a great-granddaughter of Hilton Hotels founder Conrad Hilton. She first attracted tabloid attention in the late 1990s for her presence in New York City's social scene, ventured into fashion modeling in 2000, and was proclaimed "New York's leading It Girl" in 2001. The reality television series The Simple Life (2003–2007), in which she co-starred with her friend Nicole Richie, and a leaked 2003 sex tape with her then-boyfriend Rick Salomon, later released as 1 Night in Paris (2004), catapulted her to global fame.
Hilton's career in entertainment has encompassed acting, singing, writing, producing, performing as a disc jockey, and podcasting. Her documentary and reality television credits include Paris, Not France (2008), Paris Hilton's My New BFF (2008–2009), Teenage Paparazzo (2010), The World According to Paris (2011), Hollywood Love Story (2018), The American Meme (2018), and This Is Paris (2020), Cooking with Paris (2021), and Paris in Love (2021–2023). Under her company, 11:11 Media, she has launched a variety of content, products, and services. Her perfume line alone has brought in over US$2.5 billion in revenue, as of 2020.
A polarizing and ubiquitous public figure, Hilton is said to have influenced the revival of the "famous for being famous" phenomenon throughout the 2000s. Critics indeed suggest that she exemplifies the celebutante—a household name through inherited wealth and lavish lifestyle. Forbes included her in its Celebrity 100 in 2004, 2005, and 2006, and ranked her as the most "overexposed" celebrity in 2006 and 2008.
Hilton was born on February 17, 1981, in New York City to Richard Hilton, a businessman, and Kathy Hilton, a socialite and former child actress. She is the oldest of four children, with one younger sister named Nicholai "Nicky" Hilton, and two younger brothers, Barron and Conrad Hilton. On their father's side, the four are great-grandchildren of Conrad Hilton, who founded Hilton Hotels, and grandchildren of Barron Hilton. Their maternal aunts are television personalities Kim and Kyle Richards. The siblings have Norwegian, German, Italian, English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry. The family followed the Catholic faith.
Hilton moved frequently in her youth, living in Beverly Hills, the Hamptons, and a suite in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan. Her relatives have described her as "very much a tomboy" who dreamed about becoming a veterinarian. Her mother recalled her saving money to buy monkeys, snakes, and goats, and once leaving "the snake out the cage [...] at the Waldorf". Hilton was raised in a very "sheltered, conservative" atmosphere; her parents were particularly strict, and she was not allowed to date, wear make-up, or certain types of clothes, or go to school dances. Her mother enrolled her in etiquette classes with the idea of introducing her as a debutante, which Hilton was at first reluctant to do, as she did not find it to be "real" or "natural". She described it as "very proper, very prim, almost like a Stepford wife". The family's social circle included figures such as Lionel Richie, Donald Trump, and Michael Jackson.
Growing up in Los Angeles, Hilton attended the Buckley School and St. Paul the Apostle School, finishing eighth grade in 1995. Her first year of high school (1995–96) was spent at the Marywood-Palm Valley school in Rancho Mirage, California. In 1996, Hilton and her family left California for New York City, and she joined the Dwight School. At 15, she attended classes at Professional Children's School. She skated and played ice hockey at Canterbury, a Connecticut prep school.
In New York City, Hilton had a rebellious youth, regularly skipping classes and sneaking out to parties. On this period, Kathy remarked: "Let's put it this way—it got very out of control and I was scared for her. And my husband was very scared for her. And, you know, those nightclubs go on all night." Her parents eventually sent her, then 16, to a series of boarding schools for emotionally troubled teens, including Provo Canyon School, where Hilton says that she was mentally, physically, and sexually abused by the staff. In her documentary This Is Paris, Hilton and other former students from Provo Canyon School recall the abuses they faced, including solitary confinement, forced medication, restraint, battery, and strangulation. She attended Provo for 11 months and was released in early 1999, around the time she turned 18. She then attended the Dwight School before dropping out a few months later. "She knew no one at [Dwight]", said her mother in an interview, while a classmate described her as "sort of more sophisticated. She was different from everybody else". She later earned a GED certification.
Social scene and modeling (1996–2002)
With mother Kathy and sister Nicky, Hilton modeled as a child at charity events, graced the May 4, 1988, cover of the weekly magazine Beverly Hills 213, and made an uncredited appearance in the fantasy film Wishman (1992).
After relocating to NYC in 1996, Hilton developed a reputation as a socialite through appearances at nightclubs and high-profile events. She has recalled getting offers to show up in nightclubs as young as 16, when she obtained a counterfeited identity document to gain access to events. Her antics and late-night persona soon started attracting the spotlight from local tabloids. After becoming familiar with Paris and Nicky's social circle, Jason Binn, publisher of Hamptons magazine, stated: "They're little stars. They've become names. To them, it's like a job. I believe they wake up every morning and say, 'O.K., where am I supposed to be tonight?'."
That lifestyle conflicted with her family's conservative background and proved too "rebellious" for the young Paris, whose parents sent her to a series of boarding schools until she turned 18. Hilton resumed public appearances shortly afterwards and attended the NYC premiere of Cruel Intentions in March 1999 with Nicky. A New Yorker profile by Bob Morris, published in October that year, described her and her sister as "the littlest socialites in town [...] Without even a smile, they can breeze past the velvet ropes at Moomba or get a seat at Le Bilboquet". Businessman George J. Maloof Jr., for instance, flew Hilton in his private jet and paid her to attend the Palms Casino Resort opening in Las Vegas in November 2001.
Inspired by designers Patricia Field and Betsey Johnson, Hilton decided to pursue modeling, signing with Donald Trump's agency, T Management, at age 19. She modeled for Catherine Malandrino and Marc Bouwer, and posed alongside Nicky for David LaChapelle in a shoot that was featured in the September 2000 issue of Vanity Fair. On her persona, LaChapelle stated: "Paris had a charisma back then that you couldn't take your eyes off. She would giggle and laugh and be effervescent and take up a room". By 2001, Hilton had become "one of the biggest stars, off and on the catwalk", at New York Fashion Week, graced an advertising campaign for Italian label Iceberg, and appeared on magazines such as Vogue and FHM.
In addition to modeling, Hilton ventured into screen acting, playing an ill-fated character in the independent teen thriller Sweetie Pie (2000), and filming a cameo appearance as herself in the comedy Zoolander (2001), with Ben Stiller. In 2002, she appeared in Vincent Gallo's "Honey Bunny" video, played a "strung-out supermodel" in the five-minute short QIK2JDG, and starred as a socialite in the straight-to-DVD horror film Nine Lives.
International stardom (2003–2007)
Hilton's breakout came in 2003, when she starred with her childhood friend and socialite counterpart Nicole Richie in the Fox reality series The Simple Life, in which they lived for a month with a family in the rural community of Altus, Arkansas. The show was initially pitched to both Paris and Nicky Hilton. Paris was convinced to come on board; however, Nicky, being somewhat shy to the limelight at the time, opted out. The series premiered on December 2, 2003, shortly after the leak of Hilton's sex tape, and was a ratings success. Its first episode attracted 13 million viewers, increasing Fox's adult 18–49 rating by 79 percent. The high viewership was attributed to the exposure Hilton received for the homemade tape, while she became known for her onscreen dumb blonde persona.