For those who know little about Paris Hilton beyond the headlines at the height of her socialite days in the mid-2000s, her latest project may come as something of a surprise.
After all, she’s never shown any obvious interest in the culinary arts – so what’s the idea behind fronting her own cooking show, Cooking With Paris? However, the series, which launched on Netflix recently, is just the latest in a long line of projects taken on by the ultimate 00s It girl and proof that Paris Hilton is willing to try her hand at anything.
Over the years, Paris has been a model, a DJ, a reality TV star, an actress, a musician and has lent her name to everything from perfumes to skincare – each new venture yielding varying levels of success.
Here’s DDW’s guide to the many entrepreneurial endeavours of Paris Hilton…
Starring Paris Hilton
Acting runs in Paris’ family, with her mother Kathy Hilton and aunts Kim and Kyle Richards all having made their names in Hollywood from an early age – but how did Paris fare when she tried her hand at acting for herself?
Paris appeared in a number of films across the early 2000s, starting out in the independent teen thriller Sweetie Pie (2000), straight-to-DVD horror Nine Lives (2002) and The Hillz and Raising Helen, both released in 2004. Her first major film role came in 2005 with the slasher film House Of Wax, for which she also won her first award – unfortunately, it happened to be the Razzie award for Worst Supporting Actress. She did, however, pick up the Teen Choice Award for Best Scream in the same year.
Paris continued to act, with roles in The Hottie And The Nottie, Repo! The Genetic Opera and The Dog Who Saved Christmas Vacation, all of which were considered critical and commercial failures. It was fairly clear that acting wasn’t exactly Paris’ calling, though her repeated attempts made it equally clear that she was at least having a great time doing it…
Much more successful than her acting roles, however, were her appearances on reality TV. Most notably, Paris teamed up with fellow socialite Nicole Richie in The Simple Life, a series which saw the two give up their luxury lifestyle in favour of a month living with a family in rural Arkansas. The series consistently received millions of viewers and undoubtedly helped launch Paris even further into the mainstream, eventually being picked up for a further four seasons.
This wasn’t her only venture into the world of reality TV. In 2008, MTV launched the competition series Paris Hilton’s My New BFF, which saw Paris present a group of contestants with a series of challenges, each week ending in the elimination of another contestant – the idea being that, by the end of the series, Paris would crown one contestant her new BFF. The series was later picked up by UK network ITV, who created their own version of the franchise, Paris Hilton’s British Best Friend.
Of course, these are just a few highlights of Paris’ reality TV career – over the years, she has appeared as herself in hundreds of series.
Confessions Of An Heiress
Having established herself as one of the world’s most talked-about women, Paris found success as an author in 2004 when she released her book, Confessions Of An Heiress: A Tongue-In-Cheek Peek Behind The Pose.
The book saw Paris give her advice on life as a famous heiress and offered early insight into just how much of her on-screen persona had been cultivated to raise her profile – for example, in one part of the book, she advises readers that they should always ‘act ditsy’. It was perhaps the first indicator of the way that Paris had learned to present herself differently in front of the cameras to perpetuate the ‘dumb blonde’ narrative that had made her famous – when, in reality, she was actually rather clever and level-headed.
The book became a New York Times Bestseller and received surprisingly favourable views, with many praising the book’s central message, which encouraged readers to be confident, individual and able to laugh at themselves.
Paris In Music
Paris has worked on a variety of different musical projects over the years, launching her debut album Paris in 2006. The album’s lead single Stars Are Blind reached the top ten in charts around the world and received many favourable reviews thanks to its reggae-inspired summer sound – the track recently received further recognition after featuring in the Oscar-winning film Promising Young Woman.
In later years, she went on to establish herself as a celebrity DJ, having played in shows and festivals around the world since. Whilst she has received negative criticism from fellow famous DJs such as deadmau5, Samantha Ronson and Afrojack – who have slammed both her DJing skills and the festivals who have booked her to play – Paris continued to work on her career as a DJ, even securing a set at Tomorrowland in 2019. She could often be found in Ibiza, working the booths at sold-out parties on the island.
She’s returned to the recording studio, too, having used her new-found interests in electronic, dance and house genres as the inspiration for a series of tracks, some even featuring high-profile collaborations – her track Good Time featured a collaboration with Lil Wayne.
Paris’ Perfumes
Perhaps the business endeavour most commonly associated with Paris, she has released 25 custom fragrances to date, creating one of the celebrity world’s most extensive and iconic perfume empires.
Paris’ first self-titled fragrance hit shelves in 2004, coinciding with her rise to fame following the first season of The Simple Life. A clear commercial success, it was the first in a long line of future scents that would be designed by Paris Hilton.
In the 2000s, she went on to release Just Me, Heiress, Can Can, Fairy Dust and Siren, the first of these released for both men and for women.
In the 2010s, she followed up her seven initial scents with the Paris Hilton In… line, which saw Paris release four fragrances themed around four of her favourite vacation spots, South Beach, Paris, Tokyo and St. Moritz. This range was followed by Tease, Dazzle, Can Can Burlesque, With Love, Paris Hilton Limited Edition, Heiress Limited Edition, Gold Rush, Can Can Bling, Gold Rush Man, Rose Rush, Platinum Rush and Electrify, her most recent scent released in 2019.
Whether or not there are any further perfumes in the pipeline remains to be seen, though we’re sure that, should Paris release a scent in the near future, she’d certainly have no trouble selling them.
What Is Paris Hilton’s Net Worth?
Given her many business endeavours, it’s easy to wonder how Paris’ work translates into financial success – especially given her recent deal with streaming giant Netflix.
At the most recent estimate, it was reported that Paris has a net worth of $300 million. With her parents Nick and Kathy Hilton reported to have a collective net worth of $350 million, it appears that their daughter is catching up with them – and given Paris’ recent rebrand and new momentum, it seems she has no signs of slowing down.
SEE MORE: How Fenty Made Rihanna A Billionaire