Paris Hilton

Paris Whitney Hilton (born February 17, 1981) is an American media personality, businesswoman, and socialite. 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 media ventures have included the reality television series Paris Hilton's My New BFF (2008–2009), The World According to Paris (2011), Hollywood Love Story (2018), Cooking with Paris (2021), and Paris in Love (2021–2023); the documentaries Paris, Not France (2008), The American Meme (2018), and This Is Paris (2020); the books Confessions of an Heiress (2004), Your Heiress Diary (2005), and Paris: The Memoir (2023); as well as the podcast I am Paris (2021–present). She has pursued acting in the films House of Wax (2005) and Repo! the Genetic Opera (2008), and singing with a line of standalone singles and the studio albums Paris (2006) and Infinite Icon (2024). She has also performed as a disc jockey since 2012.

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 has parlayed her media fame into numerous business endeavors. Under her company, she has produced content for broadcast media, launched a variety of product lines, and opened several boutiques worldwide, as well as an urban beach club in the Philippines. Her perfume line alone has brought in over US$2.5 billion in revenue, as of 2020^[update].

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, one of them being Nicky Hilton, and two brothers, Barron and Conrad. 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 elementary school 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 while in high 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.

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).