Hilton was born in New York City, New York, to Kathy, a socialite and actress, and Richard Hilton, a businessman. She was raised Roman Catholic and still attends Mass. She is the oldest of four children: she has one sister, Nicholai Olivia “Nicky” Hilton and two brothers, Barron Nicholas Hilton and Conrad Hughes Hilton. Hilton is mostly of German ancestry. Her paternal ancestry is completely of German ancestry, although her great-great grandfather was born in Norway to German migrants. Her great-great grandfather went on to marry Mary Genevieve, who was a German immigrant in the United States. In the U.S., they had eight children, one of them being Paris’ great-grandfather, Conrad Hilton, in New Mexico. Furthermore, she identified herself as being German on national television. She is a niece of two child stars of the 1970s, Kim and Kyle Richards.
Hilton moved between numerous exclusive homes in her youth, including a suite in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan, Beverly Hills, and the Hamptons. As a child she was good friends with other socialites, including Nicole Richie and Kim Kardashian.
Modeling
Hilton began modeling as a child, initially at charity events. When she was 19, she signed with Donald Trump’s modeling agency, T Management. Hilton has also worked with Ford Models in New York, Models 1 Agency in London, Nous Model Management in Los Angeles, and Premier Model Management in London. She has appeared in numerous advertising campaigns, including Iceberg Vodka, GUESS, Tommy Hilfiger, Christian Dior, and Marciano. In 2001, Hilton began to develop a reputation as a socialite, being identified as “New York’s leading It Girl” whose fame was beginning to “extend beyond the New York tabloids”. She has appeared in several magazines, including the April 2004 issue of Maxim. She also made an uncredited appearance in the Brüno segment in the “Law and Order” episode of the HBO series of Da Ali G Show.
Paris modeled for 2 be free in 2007, and for Brazil fashion week in 2010 and 2011 In São Paulo, Brazil. She also modeled during Ukraine Fashion week 2011 for designer Andre Tan.
Acting
Hilton has made cameo appearances in several films, notably Zoolander, Wonderland, and The Cat In The Hat. She co-starred with socialite counterpart Nicole Richie in the Fox reality series The Simple Life, which premiered on December 2, 2003. The Simple Life ran for three seasons on Fox. The show was cancelled by Fox after a dispute between Hilton and Richie, but it was subsequently aired by E! Entertainment Television for the fourth and fifth seasons. Despite talks of a sixth season, the series finished its run at the end of the fifth season. She landed several minor roles in the feature films Nine Lives (2002), Raising Helen, The Hillz (both 2004). She also appeared in several music videos, including “It Girl” by John Oates and “Just Lose It” by Eminem.
After appearing in episodes of the popular TV-show The O.C., The George Lopez Show, Las Vegas, American Dreams, and Veronica Mars, she got her first major role in the horror thriller film House of Wax, in which Elisha Cuthbert, Chad Michael Murray and Jared Padalecki also starred. The movie opened in May 2005, receiving mixed reviews. She stated on participating in the film: “I thought it would be a fun character to play and a cool movie to do.” Film critic Matthew Turner wrote in his review that Hilton “does better than you might expect”. Her role as Paige Edwards in won the Teen Choice Award for “Best Scream” and earned her a nomination for “Choice Breakout Performance – Female”. (It also won her the 2005 Razzie for “Worst Supporting Actress” at the 2005 Golden Raspberry Awards.) She also earned a nomination for “Best Frightened Performance” at the 2006 MTV Movie Awards. She landed her first lead roles in 2006 with the straight-to-DVD releases National Lampoon’s Pledge This! and Bottoms Up.
Hilton played the character of Amber Sweet, the surgery and painkiller-addicted daughter of a biotech magnate in the goth/rock musical Repo! The Genetic Opera. Critics have responded positively to her performance in the film, in which she sings and acts. In an interview Repo! director Darren Lynn Bousman revealed that he had originally refused to audition Hilton for the role of Amber Sweet. “I broke down,” says Bousman, “and I met with her, and immediately she charmed everyone in the room.” In the same interview, Bousman also revealed that Hilton was so keen to get the part that she had the script smuggled in to her during her much publicized stint in a Los Angeles jail, and used her time inside to work on her role. She played the Hottie in the box office bomb romantic comedy The Hottie and the Nottie, released in 2008 to negative reviews. She also had a minor cameo appearance as herself in the comedy An American Carol.
In April 2008, she guest starred on the My Name is Earl episode “I Won’t Die with a Little Help from My Friends”. Hilton starred in an MTV reality series titled Paris Hilton’s My New BFF, about her search for a new best friend. The series premiered on September 30, 2008.
On January 29, 2009, Paris Hilton’s British Best Friend, began airing on ITV2 in England. The second season of Paris Hilton’s My New BFF premiered on June 2, 2009. In June 2009, Hilton shot Paris Hilton’s Dubai BFF. Runner-up of the British series Kat McKenzie died on July 3, 2009, of a suspected overdose.
Hilton guest-starred in the fifth episode of Supernatural’s fifth season. “Paris Hilton is playing a demonic creature that takes the form of Paris Hilton,” creator and executive producer Eric Kripke said in a statement. “It’ll be a fun, irreverent episode and we here at Supernatural are thrilled that Paris agreed to do it.” Hilton guest-starred in an episode of I Get That a Lot in 2010, on CBS, as a gas station attendant.
In 2010, Hilton provided her voice for the character of Bella in the ABC family film The Dog Who Saved Christmas Vacation. She said of the film: “I just think it’s a really cute film” and that “I love animal movies, I love Christmas movies, and also, my grandmother, who passed away a couple of years ago from breast cancer, actually had a standard poodle and her name was Paris. So when I’m watching this, it’s kind of like watching grandma’s dog. It’s kind of like a sign to me.” The film aired on November 28.
On October 1, 2010, the Oxygen Channel gave the go-ahead to a new reality show called The World According to Paris. The show follows Hilton in her everyday life, and premiered in June 2011 and was later cancelled after the first season for low ratings.
Singing
Hilton founded Heiress Records, a sub-label of Warner Bros. Records, in 2004 and released her self-titled debut album, Paris, under that label on August 22, 2006. Although the album reached number six on the Billboard 200 for a week, its total sales volume has been low, but the first single “Stars Are Blind” was a top ten hit in 17 countries. All music commented that the album was “more fun than anything released by Britney Spears or Jessica Simpson, and a lot fresher, too.” As a whole, critical reception was mixed. Paris Hilton can also be heard singing on the soundtrack to the musical Repo! The Genetic Opera. In an interview, the director, Darren Lynn Bousman, praised her vocal skills. When talking about Hiltons’ vocal audition process for the role, Bouseman said, “We gave her some music and said, ‘You have one day to come back and perform this.’ She came back the next day, memorized everything, was pitch-perfect, I mean she was awesome.”
On July 16, 2007, Hilton confirmed that she was working on a new album with producer Scott Storch. In a recent interview with MTV, Hilton decided that her second album is going to be a dance album. She stated that she “loves Bob Sinclar” and wants to create dance-music vibe. Hilton has installed a professional recording studio in her house to work on the album. On September 30, 2008, Hilton premiered her song “My BFF” on KIIS-FM with host Ryan Seacrest. It is the first single from her as yet untitled second studio album and the theme song of her show Paris Hilton’s My New BFF. Hilton stated that she finished working on the album. A second song “Paris For President” was released along with a music video late October 2008.
For her second studio album, she had confirmed six tracks: “Jailhouse Baby”, “Platinum Blonde”, “Crave” and “My BFF”, “Paris For President”, and “Girl Tax”, “My BFF” and “Paris For President” were released in 2008 as the first two singles. In November 2008, Hilton talked with Entertainment Weekly backstage at the American Music Awards and she told them that she has finished her second album, and “wrote all the songs”. The album is featuring production by Mike Green who worked with the bands Paramore and The Matches. In December 2008, she was looking for a label to release her album, she told Entertainment Weekly. “I’m not sure which label I’m doing it with,” she said. “I’m figuring it out right now.” Later that month she stated her intention to release her album under her own record label Heiress Records.
In September 2011, at the Sun City music festival, Afrojack previewed Good Time, an unfinished demo with Hilton’s vocals. In the same month, DJ Antoine revealed that he had met with Hilton twice to discuss collaborating on her upcoming album. In October, Manufactured Superstars revealed that their next single would be “Drunk Text”, which stars Hilton in the music video.
In the January 2012 issue of FHM magazine, Hilton gave an update about her second studio album, stating: “I’ve been working on the album with lots of other top DJs for a while now and I think people will be really surprised. It’s very modern and very catchy; perfect party music”. She has since told MTV News “I was just in the studio with RedFoo the other night, so we’re going to be doing my new single with LMFAO,” and continued to say “I’m going with a whole new genre. I have Afrojack executive-producing the entire album. So we’ve just been coming up with the most incredible tracks.”. She also stated that she is working with Snoop Dogg and Flo Rida.