page_title: Sarah Paulson
section_title: 1994–2007
hierarchical_section_title: Sarah Paulson / Career / 1994–2007
caption_attribution_description: English: Sarah Paulson at the 51st Annual Drama Desk Awards
context_page_description: Sarah Catharine Paulson is an American actress. She is the recipient of several accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award. In 2017, Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
  Born in Tampa, Florida, Paulson was raised there and later in New York City following her parents' divorce. She began her acting career after high school in New York stage productions before starring in the short-lived television series American Gothic and Jack & Jill. She later appeared in comedy films such as What Women Want and Down with Love, and drama films such as Path to War and The Notorious Bettie Page. From 2006 to 2007, she starred as Harriet Hayes in the NBC comedy-drama series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, for which she received her first Golden Globe Award nomination. In 2008, Paulson starred as Ellen Dolan in the superhero noir film The Spirit.
  Paulson has appeared on Broadway in the plays The Glass Menagerie in 2005 and Collected Stories in 2010. She also starred in a number of independent films, and had a leading role on the ABC comedy series Cupid in 2009.
context_section_description: Paulson began working as an actress right out of high school. 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." She also appeared Off-Broadway in a fall 1998 production of Killer Joe. She subsequently played Elisa Cronkite in The WB comedy-drama series Jack & Jill (1999). 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. The following year, she had a small supporting role in the comedy What Women Want, starring Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt.
  Paulson had a minor recurring role in the HBO series Deadwood (2005–2006), and was a focal character in an episode of the FX series Nip/Tuck. She starred as the main character in the NBC series Leap of Faith. She was then cast in the period comedy Down with Love (2003) in a central role, portraying the friend and editor of a writer (portrayed by Renee Zellweger).
  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 revival of The Glass Menagerie on Broadway, opposite future American Horror Story 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 NBC's 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.
caption: Paulson at the 2006 Drama Desk Awards
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