Aaron Paul's Real Name: Aaron Paul Sturtevant

Quick answer: Aaron Paul's original name is Aaron Paul Sturtevant. He was born on August 27, 1979, in Emmett, Idaho. He is an actor who won three Emmy Awards as Jesse Pinkman on Breaking Bad (Biography.com).

Real name and early life

A Biography.com profile records his original name as Aaron Paul Sturtevant, born August 27, 1979, in Emmett, Idaho, the youngest of five children of Robert and Darla Sturtevant. The Library of Congress heading is "Paul, Aaron, 1979-." Biography.com says he dropped the surname Sturtevant after moving to Hollywood because casting directors had trouble pronouncing it. The son of a Baptist minister, he joined the drama club at Centennial High School in Boise and, after graduation, moved to Los Angeles at 17.

Career highlights

Early work included commercials—Biography.com mentions a Corn Pops spot and a Korn music video—and a long stretch of television guest parts, among them Beverly Hills, 90210, ER, CSI: Miami, Veronica Mars, and Joan of Arcadia. Film credits from this period include K-PAX (2002), with Jeff Bridges, National Lampoon's Van Wilder (2002), and a small part in Mission: Impossible III (2006). His first major series role was Scott Quittman, boyfriend and later husband of Amanda Seyfried's character, on HBO's Big Love, beginning in 2007.

He was still on Big Love when a Breaking Bad script reached him. Vince Gilligan created the series, about a chemistry teacher, Walter White, who turns to illegal drug manufacturing; Paul was cast as Jesse Pinkman, White's younger partner, with Bryan Cranston as White. The show aired from 2008 to September 2013. Biography.com says Gilligan originally planned to write Pinkman out before the second season, then kept the character after seeing how well Paul and Cranston worked together. Over five seasons he received five Emmy nominations for outstanding supporting actor in a drama series and won in 2010, 2012, and 2014. Other films listed by Biography.com include the independent features Smashed (2010) and Decoding Annie Parker (2013), as well as two 2014 releases announced while Breaking Bad was ending: A Long Way Down, with Pierce Brosnan, Toni Collette, and Rosamund Pike, and Exodus, in which he played Joshua opposite Christian Bale.

Name notes for searchers

Aaron Paul Sturtevant is the documented original name; he has been billed as Aaron Paul. Searchers looking for either form, or for the actor who played Jesse Pinkman, are usually aiming at the same person.