Paris Whitney Hilton is an American media personality, businesswoman, and socialite. Born in New York City, and raised there and in Los Angeles, she is a great-granddaughter of Conrad Hilton, the founder of Hilton Hotels. After first attracting tabloid attention in the late 1990s, when she became a fixture in NYC's social scene, Hilton ventured into fashion modeling in 2000 and was proclaimed "New York's leading It Girl" in 2001. The reality television series
The Simple Life (2003â2007), 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.