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Producer · Actor · Director

1974-12-17 · Tampa, Florida, USA · Female

41 series in the catalog

Sarah Catharine Paulson (born December 17, 1974) is an American actress. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Tony Award, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2017, Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Paulson began her acting career starring in the television series American Gothic (1995–1996) and Jack & Jill (1999–2001). She played Harriet Hayes in the NBC drama series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (2006–2007). Paulson gained fame for her collaborations with showrunner Ryan Murphy, notably starring in nine seasons of his anthology series American Horror Story from 2011 to 2021, earning five Primetime Emmy Award nominations.

For her portrayal of Marcia Clark in the FX limited series The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story (2016), she earned the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie. She was Emmy-nominated for her roles as Nicolle Wallace in the HBO television film Game Change (2012) and Linda Tripp in the FX miniseries Impeachment: American Crime Story (2021). She has also played a conservative activist in the FX on Hulu limited series Mrs. America (2020) and Nurse Ratched in the Netflix thriller series Ratched (2020).

On film, she has had leading roles in Blue Jay (2016), Glass (2019), Run (2020), and Hold Your Breath (2024), as well as supporting roles in What Women Want (2000), Down with Love (2003), Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011), Mud (2012), 12 Years a Slave (2013), Carol (2015), The Post (2017), Ocean's 8 (2018), and Bird Box (2018). On Broadway, she acted in the Tennessee Williams revival The Glass Menagerie (2005), the Donald Margulies play Collected Stories (2010), and the Branden Jacobs-Jenkins play Appropriate (2023), the latter earning her the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.

Early life and education

Sarah Catharine Paulson was born in Tampa, Florida, on December 17, 1974, the daughter of Catharine Gordon (née Dolcater) and Douglas Lyle Paulson II. She spent her early life in South Tampa until her parents' divorce when she was five. After her parents' separation, she relocated with her mother and sister to Maine, then to New York City. Her mother worked as a waitress, and Paulson lived in Queens and Gramercy Park before settling in Park Slope.

She recalled of this period, "My mom was 27 years old [when we moved]. She didn't know a single person in New York City. She got a job at Sardi's Restaurant." Throughout her childhood, Paulson spent her summers in Florida with her father, who was an executive at a Tampa door manufacturing company. She attended P.S. 29 and Berkeley Carroll School in Brooklyn before attending Manhattan's Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Career

1994–2007: Early roles and career beginnings

Paulson began working as an actress immediately after high school. She made her Broadway debut in 1994 as a replacement understudy for the role of Tessin, played by Amy Ryan in Wendy Wasserstein's play The Sisters Rosensweig at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. She appeared in the Horton Foote play Talking Pictures at the Signature Theatre, and in an episode of Law & Order in 1994. The next year, Paulson appeared in the Hallmark television film Friends at Last (1995) opposite Kathleen Turner, playing the adult version of Turner's character's daughter. She also starred in the short-lived television series American Gothic (also 1995), playing the ghost of a murdered woman.

In 1997, Paulson made her feature film debut in the independent thriller film Levitation, playing a woman who discovers she is pregnant after an anonymous sexual encounter. Leonard Klady of Variety noted that Paulson and her co-stars are "not supported by the script", concluding: "Levitation is a grim, convoluted saga of identity and belonging. An ill-fitting combination of melodrama and magic realism, the indie effort will have a decidedly difficult time in the theatrical arena." In 1997, Paulson was a featured actress (Janice/Nina) in the two-part episode "True Romance" of Cracker, which starred Robert Pastorelli. In 1998, she returned to the stage acting in the Off-Broadway production of Killer Joe (1998).

In 1999, she played Elisa Cronkite in The WB comedy-drama series Jack & Jill. The same year, she was also cast opposite Juliette Lewis and Diane Keaton in the drama The Other Sister, playing the lesbian sister of a developmentally-disabled woman in San Francisco, and in a supporting part playing a hostage in the comedy Held Up, opposite Jamie Foxx. In 2000, she had a small supporting role in the Nancy Meyers–directed romantic comedy What Women Want, starring Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt.

She portrayed Luci Baines Johnson in the HBO film Path to War (2002) starring Michael Gambon, Donald Sutherland and Alec Baldwin. That same year she starred as the main character, Faith Wardwell, an advertising executive, in the NBC series Leap of Faith (2002). Phil Gallo compared the show unfavorably to Sex and the City. She was then cast in the period romantic comedy Down with Love (2003) in a central supporting role, portraying the friend and editor of a writer (portrayed by Renee Zellweger). Paulson had a minor recurring role in the HBO series Deadwood (2005) and was a focal character in a 2004 episode of the FX series Nip/Tuck.

In 2004, she had a supporting role in the ABC series The D.A., which was cancelled after only four episodes. In the spring of 2005, Paulson starred in a Broadway revival of the Tennessee Williams play The Glass Menagerie opposite co-star Jessica Lange. Ben Brantley of The New York Times deemed the production as "misdirected and miscast... reality never makes an appearance in this surreally blurred production." Later that year, Paulson appeared Off-Broadway in a production of Colder Than Here, opposite Lily Rabe (also her future co-star on American Horror Story). The production received an unfavorable review from Variety, with critic Dave Rooney writing: "Rabe speaks in an affected monotone while Sarah Paulson has the measured, upward-inflected delivery of a children's TV presenter... this mannered, melancholy play elicits a mainly impassive response, which is no small obstruction in a work dealing with loss."

Also in 2005, Paulson had a small role in the Joss Whedon-directed science fiction film Serenity. In the 2006–07 television season, Paulson co-starred in the Aaron Sorkin created NBC comedy-drama Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, playing Harriet Hayes, one of the stars of the show-within-a-show. This role earned her a nomination for Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film. In December 2008, Paulson appeared in the screen adaptation of Will Eisner's comic book The Spirit, playing an updated version of the character Ellen Dolan.

2008–2015: Breakthrough and critical acclaim

In 2008, ABC cast Paulson in the pilot Cupid, which was ordered to series. It was a remake of the 1998 series starring Jeremy Piven and Paula Marshall. In the new version, Paulson starred opposite Bobby Cannavale. It debuted in late March 2009 on ABC but was cancelled on May 19, 2009, after six episodes. In February 2010, Paulson was cast as the circa 1982 mother of main character Meredith Grey, on the ABC drama Grey's Anatomy, appearing in a flashback sequence in a season-six episode. She then played Nicolle Wallace in the HBO film Game Change (2012), based on events of the 2008 U.S. presidential election campaign. For her performance, she earned Primetime Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations.

In the spring of 2010, she starred in the Donald Margulies play Collected Stories alongside Linda Lavin at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on Broadway. The same year, Paulson filmed the independent drama Martha Marcy May Marlene, in which she starred opposite Elizabeth Olsen and Hugh Dancy, portraying the wealthy…