Background and career
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 star vehicles include Paris, Not France (2008), Paris Hilton's My New BFF (2008–2009), The World According to Paris (2011), The American Meme (2018), This Is Paris (2020), Cooking with Paris (2021), Paris in Love (2021–2023), and Infinite Icon: A Visual Memoir (2026). 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. Her name comes from a promise that her mother made with La Toya and Michael Jackson when they were younger that if they had a daughter, they would name her after the French capital city. She is the oldest of four children, with one sister, 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 part of her upbringing 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.
How Paris Hilton makes money
Her perfume line alone has brought in over US$2.5 billion in revenue, as of 2020. House of Wax grossed over US$70 million worldwide. to protest the addition of several nude scenes, which resulted in a production company suing Hilton, alleging that she did not fulfill her contractual agreement to provide "reasonable promotion and publicity" for the film, despite receiving a US$1 million fee for the role.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth, in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
