Paris Hilton was born on February 17th, 1981, to Rick and Kathy Hilton, making her the great-granddaughter of Conrad Hilton, founder of the Hilton hotels and source of the family fortune.

Paris younger sister, Nicky (born in 1983), shares the throne as co-heiress of the Hilton empire.

So, around the year 2000, Paris decided to branch out and become famous. She began to make a name for herself as a model, soon appearing in shows for designers such as Marc Bouwer and Catherine Malandrino, and she later completed an ad campaign for Iceberg, an Italian label. In addition, Paris has posed for spreads in national magazines such as GQ, Vanity Fair and FHM, and has also been profiled, along with her sister, in People magazine. In May of 2006, Maxim magazine ranked Hilton #38 on its annual Hot 100 list.

At the same time, Paris became the center of attention because of her relationships (real or imagined by the paparazzi) with some of Hollywood's hottest young stars.

In addition to being a highly active socialite in both Manhattan and Los Angeles, Hilton participates in modeling, acting, and writing, within which venues she has accumulated much personal wealth.

She attended high school at the Dwight School in New York, but dropped out and eventually earned a GED. Hilton decided not to attend a university.
Paris has recently grabbed headlines thanks to a makeout session with notorious lesbian, Ingrid Casares, and the rumor of a sex tape featuring Paris and Rick Solomon in the act.

A videotape of her having sex with her boyfriend (1 Night In Paris) helped skyrocket her into the public eye. That was followed by a series of personal scandals and publicity stunts.

In August 2006 she launched a serious bid at a music career, with her debut pop album Paris. The album is not exactly full of musical revelations: this is slickly produced, commercial dance-pop bearing the blinding gloss of celebrity on its 11 breezy, yet undeniably catchy tunes.

Stars Are Blind for example, the album's first single, threads a sweet, winding melody over a burbling Blondie-esque reggae beat for an immediately appealing pop confection.

Paris was engaged to model Jason Shaw from mid-2002 to early 2003. On May 29, 2005, she announced her engagement to Paris Latsis, a Greek shipping heir. However, on October 1, 2005, Hilton announced that the five-month engagement had been called off. Soon thereafter, she began dating another Greek shipping heir, Stavros Niarchos III, but as of May 2, 2006, Hilton publicist Elliot Mintz told the press of the reported breakup.

Despite her comments of a single life, Paris was photographed kissing Brandon Davis on July 16, 2006 in West Hollywood. Hilton was also photographed making out with Stavros Niarchos III in St. Tropez on July 30, 2006. On July 31, 2006, Paris told People that she and Stavros are together again. The couple split in May after seven months of dating. "We're together now here. We love each other," Hilton says.

In January 2007, Hilton's private life again created headlines with the launch of ParisExposed.com, a website that featured images of personal and medical documents, video, and other private material, allegedly obtained when the contents of a storage locker rented by Hilton were auctioned off due to lack of payment. CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 discussed footage obtained from the website which features Hilton using several ethnic slurs. On February 3, 2007 Hilton obtained a temporary injunction against ParisExposed.com, closing down the website for a short period of time before the site went back online.

In a June 11, 2007 phone interview from jail, Hilton told Barbara Walters that while serving time in jail, God has given her a new chance, and that she will no longer "act dumb."

Hilton has appeared in the short subjects QIK2JDG and L.A. Knights, as well as minor and supporting roles in the feature movies House of Wax, The Hillz, Wonderland, Raising Helen, and Nine Lives. Hilton won the 2005 Worst Supporting Actress Razzie for House of Wax. She landed her first lead roles in 2006 with the straight to DVD releases National Lampoon's Pledge This! and Bottom's Up with Jason Mewes.

She also appeared in cameo roles in Zoolander (2001), The Cat in the Hat (2003) and Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! (2004). In 2003, a sex tape featuring Hilton and Rick Salomon surfaced.The tape leaked onto the Internet, presumably by Donald Thrasher, a friend of Hilton and former roommate of Salomon's. Salomon filed suit both against the company distributing the tape and the Hilton family, who he accused of tarnishing his reputation by suggesting that he had exploited Paris. Salomon further claimed in his $10 million suit that the Hiltons were implying that Paris was underage when the tape was made, and were attempting to crush him to preserve the image they had created for her.

After a few months, Salomon started to distribute the tape himself through adult film company Red Light District Video and was sued by Paris Hilton. This suit was settled, with Hilton receiving $400,000 and a cut of the profits from the tape. The DVD of the sex video is entitled 1 Night in Paris and is available widely, and was a huge seller of 2005, winning several AVN Awards.

In the fall of 2004, Hilton released a book, Confessions of an Heiress: A Tongue-in-Chic Peek Behind the Pose co-written by Merle Ginsberg, which has full color photographs of her and gives her tips on the do's and don'ts of living as an heiress. Hilton was reportedly given $100,000 in advanced payment for this book.

Hilton has helped design a collection of purses for Tokyo label Samantha Thavasa and has also been involved in the design of a jewelry line, The Paris Hilton Collection, for Amazon.

In early May of 2004, Paris was involved in the creation of a fragrance line by Parlux Fragrances. The perfume would be aptly named Paris Hilton. The perfume launch was a success. Originally set to be a small release, demand was high and necessitated a wider release before Christmas of 2004. The launch was followed by a 47% increase in sales for Parlux, which was predominantly due to sales of the Hilton-branded perfume. After the success of Hilton's perfume, Parlux Fragrances released Paris Hilton for Men, a cologne for Hilton's male admirers, as well as another fragrance called Just Me by Paris Hilton, which is available for both women and men.

On July 16, 2007 Hilton confirmed that she's already working on a new album, but there's no title yet. The release is planned for Fall 2007. She was also attending singing lessons to increase her voice for the new record and some tracks have already been finished. Recently music producer Scott Storch confirmed his work on Hilton's upcoming album.

In September 2006, Hilton was arrested and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol with a blood alcohol content of 0.08%, the minimum at which it is illegal to drive in California. Hilton's drivers license was subsequently suspended in November 2006, and in January 2007 she pled no contest to the alcohol-related reckless driving charge. Her punishment was 36 months' probation and fines of about $1,500.

On January 15, 2007, Hilton was pulled over for driving with a suspended license and signed a document acknowledging that she was not permitted to drive. On February 27, 2007 Hilton was caught driving 70 MPH in a 35 MPH zone, again with a suspended license. She also did not have her headlights on even though it was after dark. Prosecutors in the office of the Los Angeles City Attorney charged that those actions, along with the failure to enroll in a court-ordered alcohol education program constituted a violation of the terms of her probation.

On May 4, 2007 Hilton was sentenced by Judge Michael T. Sauer to 45 days in jail for violating her probation. Initially, Hilton planned to appeal the sentence, and supported an online petition asking California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for a pardon. The petition to Governor Schwarzenegger was created and organized on May 5, 2007 by Joshua Morales, a loyal fan of Ms. Hilton's who was upset by the sentence that Paris received from Judge Michael Sauer the day before. In response, various opponents started a petition to maintain the sentence. Both petitions attracted tens of thousands of signatures. Hilton later switched lawyers, and dropped her plans to appeal.

Hilton was required to begin her jail term on June 5, 2007, or risk a doubling of her sentence.[34] On June 3, 2007, after attending the 2007 MTV Movie Awards, Hilton checked herself into the Century Regional Detention Facility, an all female jail in Lynwood, California, at 11:38 pm PDT. From there, Hilton was transferred by authorities to a special section "reserved for police officers, public officials, celebrities and other high-profile inmates" Hilton was given the inmate booking number 9818783. With credit for good behavior, it was anticipated that Hilton would only serve 23 days of her 45-day sentence.

In an unexpected turn of events, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca signed orders on the morning of June 7, reassigning Hilton to 40 days of home confinement with an electronic monitoring device due to an unspecified medical condition. Sheriff Baca commented on the release saying, "My message to those who don't like celebrities is that punishing celebrities more than the average American is not justice."[56] According to Baca, under normal circumstances, Hilton would not have served any time in jail, and he added that "The special treatment, in a sense, appears to be because of her celebrity status ... She got more time in jail". However this is contradicted by an analysis performed by the LA Times, which concluded that had she been let out after 4 days, she would have served the same amount of time as 60% of inmates with a similar criminal history. The LA Times article concludes that the actual time Hilton served means her punishment exceeded that of 80% of people in similar situations.
The same day Hilton was released from jail, Judge Michael Sauer ordered Hilton to reappear back in his court the following morning (June 8) as the sentencing statement had explicitly said she would serve time in jail with "No work furlough. No work release. No electronic monitoring". The judge also said that he was informed that the sheriff intended to release Hilton but that the judge had not agreed to it, instead reaffirming her original sentence.[60] At the hearing he declined to be briefed by Hilton's attorney in private chambers on the nature of her condition and sent her back to jail to serve out her original 45-day sentence. Upon hearing the sentence, Hilton shouted, "It's not right!" and started screaming requesting to hug her mother, who was present in the courtroom. She was then escorted out. Concern about Hilton's condition led to her being moved to the medical wing of the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles. On June 13 Hilton was moved back to the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood due to improvements in her condition. (Hilton in an interview from jail claimed she suffered from claustrophobia although an unidentified "Paris insider" claims it was "toilet-phobia").

On June 9, 2007 prison minister Marty Angelo petitioned sentencing Judge Michael Sauer asking to serve out the remainder of Hilton's jail sentence if the judge would release her to an alternative treatment program. Angelo's petition fell on deaf ears. Angelo posted an "Open Letter to Paris Hilton" on his website. Hilton referred to starting a "new beginning" during her interview with talk show host, Larry King on June 28, 2007, two days after being released from jail.[69] Angelo's autobiography is entitled, "Once Life Matters: A New Beginning" which he shipped to Hilton through her attorney, Richard A. Hutton on May 23, 2007 before her Los Angeles County Jail incarceration. Hilton quoted directly from one of the book's pages (#178) during the interview when she used Angelo's 'prison motto' advice: "Don't serve the time, let the time serve you." Hilton stated, "I did that and that really helped."

Hilton was released from jail at 12:15am PDT on June 26, 2007. In total Hilton served 22 days in detention, counting her day-long home confinement. She was met by a contingent of paparazzi and camera crews.