Sarah Paulson's Real Name: Sarah Catharine Paulson

Quick answer: Sarah Paulson's birth name is Sarah Catharine Paulson. She was born on December 17, 1974, in Tampa, Florida. She is known for Ryan Murphy's American Horror Story and for playing prosecutor Marcia Clark in The People v. O.J. Simpson, a role that won her an Emmy and a Golden Globe. She won the 2024 Tony for best leading actress in Appropriate (Library of Congress; Britannica).

Real name and early life

The Library of Congress name authority files her as "Paulson, Sarah, 1974-." It cites "b. Dec. 17, 1974, Tampa, Fla.; birth name: Sarah Catharine Paulson." An older LOC note gave 1975, but the heading and Britannica use 1974. Her middle name, Catharine, matches her mother's first name. Britannica names her parents as Catharine Gordon and Douglas Paulson.

Britannica says she spent her early childhood in Tampa with her younger sister, Liz. After her parents divorced when she was five, she moved with her mother and sister to New York City. She also has a half sister, Rachel Paulson. School plays led her to New York's Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. Her professional debut was as an understudy in Wendy Wasserstein's The Sisters Rosensweig on Broadway (1994).

Career highlights

Early TV work included Law & Order (1994) and a recurring role as the ghost sister Merlyn in American Gothic. Her feature debut came in Levitation (1997). She built a career as a character actress in What Women Want (2000), Down with Love (2003), and The Notorious Bettie Page (2005). She earned a Golden Globe nomination as Harriet Hayes in Aaron Sorkin's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (2006–07) and played Nicolle Wallace in HBO's Game Change (2012).

Jessica Lange reintroduced her to Ryan Murphy, and she joined American Horror Story in its first season (2011). She played roles ranging from a witch-school head to conjoined twins, and earned five Emmy nominations. As Marcia Clark she won both an Emmy and a Golden Globe. She went on to play Nurse Mildred Ratched in Netflix's Ratched (2020) and Linda Tripp in Impeachment: American Crime Story (2021).

Film roles include 12 Years a Slave (2013), Carol (2015), The Post (2017), Ocean's Eight, Bird Box, Glass, and Run (2020). On Broadway she appeared in The Glass Menagerie (2005) opposite Lange and Collected Stories (2010). After a 10-year break from the New York stage, she returned in Appropriate, which won her the Tony in 2024. Britannica notes that she has been in a relationship with actress Holland Taylor since 2015.

Name notes for searchers

Paulson is her father's surname, and she has no stage name. Watch the spelling of her middle name: it is Catharine, with an "a," not Catherine.