Paris Hilton

Paris Whitney Hilton (born February 17, 1981) is an American socialite, media personality, entertainer, 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, modeling, singing, writing, producing, deejaying, and podcasting. Her documentary and reality television credits include Paris, Not France (2008), Paris Hilton's My New BFF (2008–2009), The World According to Paris (2011), Hollywood Love Story (2018), The American Meme (2018), 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.

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.

As a public figure, Hilton has been a guest at fundraising events, children's hospitals, and orphanages. She has been involved with the Starlight Children's Foundation and the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and is listed on the "First Families" of the Children's Hospital Los Angeles, which means she has donated US$100,000 or more to the hospital. In 2008, a room at the hospital was named in her honor, and for her charitable efforts, Starlight and the American Humane Association have awarded Hilton the 2011 Heart of Gold Award, and the 2014 National Humanitarian Award, respectively.

Hilton supported the LGBT rights organization NOH8 in 2011, raised US$100,000 for children with disabilities in Ibiza in 2015, and donated 50 of her personal items to the Children's Hospital Los Angeles and the Starlight Children's Foundation in 2017.

In October 2018, Hilton hosted Rock The Runway, an event benefitting Children's Miracle Network Hospitals and The Sasha Project LA. 20 percent of the proceeds from her 2018 five-nail polishes line with Nail and Bone goes to Animal Haven, a New York-based non-profit rescue group. In June 2019, Hilton was part of the annual, all-female Cash & Rocket auto rally, which took place across Europe and raised money for Sumbandila, The Helen Bamber Foundation and Dream for Future Africa Foundation.

Hilton has partnered with Understood.org for ADHD Awareness Month in October 2024, and with Collegium Pharmaceutical for the "Embrace Your Sparkle" campaign in March 2026.

In January 2026, Hilton volunteered at the Pasadena Humane Society, and held a press conference at the Capitol, with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Laurel Lee, to advocate for the DEFIANCE Act, which would allow victims of AI-generated explicit images to sue creators.

A particularly polarizing figure since rising to fame, Hilton has often been the subject of harsh criticism. Writing for The New York Times in 2003, John Leland opined: "In a ravenous celebrity culture, Ms. Hilton's rise shows how far celebrity itself has been devalued".

A 2006 poll conducted by the Associated Press and AOL concluded that Hilton was the second-Worst Celebrity Role Model, behind Britney Spears. According to a June 2007 Gallup poll, nearly two-thirds of Americans (63%) felt very unsympathetic toward her, and a November 2007 online survey of children conducted by E-Poll Market Research ranked her among the most unfriendly celebrities among children. The 2007 Guinness World Records named her the world's "most overrated celebrity", and Forbes ranked her as the most "overexposed" in 2006 and 2008. The latter stated in 2008 that "65% of the U.S. population would use the term 'overexposed' to describe Hilton [...] To put that in perspective, most celebrities average between 3% and 7% on the E-Poll celebrity index during the peak of their careers". In the Forbes list, she also ranked second, fifth and eight in 2007, 2012, and 2014 respectively. A 2011 Ipsos poll concluded that she was the most unpopular celebrity with Americans (with 60 percent of respondents viewing her unfavorably).

Despite the noticeable public disapproval, Hilton was among the most popular searches on various search engines (such as Google, AOL and Lycos) between 2004 and 2008. In 2004, she was named one of the "10 Most Fascinating People", according to Barbara Walters' annual primetime special ("Paris' Most Shocking Moments"). Forbes included her in its Celebrity 100, which ranks the highest-paid celebrities, in 2004, 2005, and 2006. She ranked 59th, 23rd, 34th, and 35th in FHM's 100 Sexiest Women poll in 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2012, respectively, and was 20th and 38th, respectively, on Maxim magazine's Hot 100 list in 2005 and 2006. She has been included among the "50 Most Popular Women on the Web" by Google in 2010, the "100 Hottest Women of All Time" by Men's Health in 2011, the "50 Most Influential People in the NFT Industry" by Fortune in 2021, the "40 Most Powerful Women on Reality TV" by Variety in 2023, and the "100 Most Influential People in AI" by Forbes in 2026.

The nature and extent of her fame is often questioned by critics, as she is not considered an artist nor performer. Blair Soden of ABC News noted: "She's made a lot of money with a hodgepodge of traditional celebrity revenue. But what she's best at is being Paris Hilton". Writers indeed suggest that Hilton epitomizes the celebutante: a celebrity for no particularly identifiable reason other than inherited wealth and lavish lifestyle. Cait Munro of Refinery29 asserted: "Paris Hilton is an icon not just of the 2000s, but of a certain widely held image of what inherited wealth, undeserved fame, and American excess looks like".

Much of her image has centered on her "party girl-heiress archetype" as well as her blonde hair and the stereotypes associated with it, especially stupidity, naïveté, sexual availability and artificiality. The development of that character stemmed from the initial success of The Simple Life and her desire to embody "the ultimate brand based on [...] the right everything for a formula that far exceeded anybody else at that time", according to Jason Moore, her former manager. He stated: "She was the ultimate package that corporate America would want to make for itself as a marketing tool, but it was already made for them. They say to be a famous person, people want to be you or [sleep with you], and she encompassed both of those".

It has been said that Hilton's rise to fame, coinciding with society's increased fixation on celebrity and the internet becoming a more accessible medium, facilitated the insurgency of an unprecedented type of celebrity—which was initially promoted by reality television and has since intensified with the posterior growth of social media—whose displays of its private life became an unusual focus of public interest, and therefore, their own source of income.

In 2018, Lili Anolik, of Vanity Fair, observed that Hilton "instinctively grasped that the great cultural contribution of the movies was movie stars", and further said that since "anybody with a phone was now a potential cineaste" and "true movie stars require[d] raw presence, not refined acting skills", she needed "only ever perform herself, or, rather, 'herself'[:] a gorgeous blonde ditz, the modern-day Monroe". In 2020, Los Angeles Times' editor Lindzi Scharf regarded her as "the woman who will likely go down in history for putting the 'i' in influencer". GQ's Carrie Battan had previously called her "the figure who set off Hollywood 2.0's Big Bang, the effects of which continue to radiate through the industry today. Hilton, the one who made it possible to be famous for doing nothing, was so sought-after in the [...] 2000s that you couldn't get her to walk to her mailbox without giving her a check". Bert Marcus, the director of the documentary The American Meme (2018), echoed that sentiment, remarking that she "paved the way for creating a brand and a celebrity out of being herself and she turned it into a phenomenon," while Instagram celebrity and entrepreneur The Fat Jew, who was one of the subjects in the aforementioned documentary, credited her for "inventing the way the world thinks about influence".

Hilton made part of the early-2000s popularization of reality television into mainstream pop culture. Vice, in a 2015 profile, noted that after The Simple Life premiered in 2003, "cable channels began programming reality television shows. MTV's second golden age consisted of The Hills; Andy Cohen reinvented Bravo with a repertoire of The Real Housewives, and TLC started teaching Americans about Dance Moms and Honey Boo Boo". Dazed once considered that every "[reality] star who cashes in after the series by collaborating with brands is essentially selling a sort of post-Hilton aspirational glamour". The Kardashian family, Heidi Montag, Spencer Pratt, Tila Tequila, Danielle Staub, Alexa Chung, Brittny Gastineau, and Snooki are some of the personalities who are said to have followed in her footsteps. Kim Kardashian acknowledged Hilton for "giving" her a career, while Tana Mongeau stated that the media personality "paved the way for me. A girl like me who is literally famous for nothing—Paris Hilton taught us how to make that a business, you know what I mean".

Hilton's influence on fashion, tabloid journalism, and Hollywood throughout the 2000s led her to be considered an American pop culture icon. The height of her fame contributed to the growth of what The New York Times described as a "misogynist" and intrusive celebrity culture, monopolized by tabloids and paparazzi. For instance, a paparazzi photograph of her, at that time, could range from US$8,000 to US$1 million, celebrity-focused newspapers and media agencies (e.g. TMZ and Hollywood.TV) attributed part of their large viewership to their coverage on Hilton, and a network of gossip blogs such as PerezHilton.com emerged after she rose to fame. The clothing style that defined her image in her heyday—oversized sunglasses, tracksuits, rhinestones, trucker hats, the Dior Saddle bag, and "the accessory dog"—became a popular fashion trend and helped popularize brands such as Juicy Couture and Von Dutch. The Julien Macdonald dress Hilton wore for her 21st birthday has been recreated numerous times, while a 2011 report from The Kennel Club associated her with "the upsurge of popularity" in "so-called handbag dogs". In 2017, People magazine wrote: "For millennials, Paris Hilton has always been and will always be a living legend. The socialite has come to perfectly define not only the millennial fashion aesthetic, but also a bygone era of celebrity where social media was nonexistent, as were stylists, and getting papped while partying was simply de rigueur" (to get "papped" is to be followed and photographed by paparazzi).

Hilton has been discussed by journalists and scholars interested in the role of celebrities and their influence through the media. Feminist theorist Camille Paglia described her as a "groundbreaking" figure in Hollywood, while in her book The Bling Ring, an account on the group of thieves who robbed Hilton's house, Nancy Jo Sales positioned her as a "celebrity symbol of how destructive individualism ruled the 2000s". Jej Perfekcyjność, a Polish sociologist and queer activist, created and organised a yearly event known as International Paris Hilton Day, which took place in Warsaw since 2006, on the first Sunday of May. However, the celebration was cancelled in 2010, following a plane crash near Smolensk, and was permanently discontinued in 2013, due to controversial comments made by Hilton the previous year. On August 29, 2006, the mayor of Las Vegas proclaimed the day "Paris Hilton Day" and gave Hilton a key to the city. Her quote, "Dress cute wherever you go; life is too short to blend in", was added to The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations in September 2009.

Throughout Hilton's adulthood, numerous aspects of her personal life—particularly, her uninhibited and extravagant jet set lifestyle, her extensive list of friendships, relationships and romantic associations with other high-profile figures, heavy partying, and reported instances of inappropriate behavior—have drawn a large amount of media attention and public disapproval.

Hilton is known for her love of small dogs, and has had a female Chihuahua named Tinkerbell among many other pets. Hilton was frequently seen carrying Tinkerbell (dubbed an "accessory dog") at social events and functions, and in all five seasons of television reality show The Simple Life. In April 2015, it was reported that Tinkerbell had died at age 14. In one of her properties, Hilton had a 300-square-foot house with air conditioning, heating, and designer furniture built for her pets at an estimated cost of US$325,000.