Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson (born April 3, 1998 in Beverly Hills, California) is a model, actress, and musician. She is the second child and only daughter of music legend Michael Jackson.
Around twenty years before she was born, her father, her aunt La Toya, and family friend Kathy Hilton made a pact that the first daughter of each of them would be named Paris. Kathy would have her own daughter, La Toya adopted a poodle, and Michael would father this article's subject matter. Paris spent most of her childhood in the (now-controversial) Neverland Ranch alongside older brother Prince and younger brother Bigi (better known as Blanket), due to her parents divorcing and her father having full custody rights over his children. It seemed like that she and her brothers would end up with relatively normal lives, even with Michael's own wobbly reputation causing him to become a paparazzi magnet.
Then, on June 25, 2009, Michael died when Paris was 11 years old.
Paris became more well-known in the public eye during Michael's funeral, where she gave out a short speech that was completely improvised, showing the world a daughter who truly loved her father. After that, it's all downhill for a few years. Paris had a tense relationship with her family for two main reasons. The first was that due to her mother being Jewish by the time that Paris was born, she too is Jewish by the laws of halakha, not very well-suited for a family comprised of mainly Jehovah's Witnesses. The other reason is that she came out to her family in 2012, not suited at all for a notoriously religious family. Combine that with her grandmother making living with her difficult due to the lack of any structure, and that's what led to the self-harm, then to multiple suicide attempts, then to a timely intervention from her mother to get her out of her suicidal habit and send her to a therapeutic boarding school... which messed her up in a completely different way. However, it did succeed in stopping her from attempting to kill herself for good.
In 2017, Paris felt more safe in becoming more public, so began a career in modelling, where she ended up on the cover of Rolling Stone, which resulted in a contract with IMG Models in March. That same month, her acting career would begin with a role on a musical drama called Star in a guest starring role. In 2018, she would meet Gabriel Glenn, a musician who would end up as her boyfriend, and so would begin her music career with the formation of the duo The Soundflowers, all the while she made her feature film debut in Gringo as drug smuggler Nelly. However, that same year, she would end up being choked by conspiracy theorist Isaac Kappy at a party, which, thankfully, she survived. In 2019, Leaving Neverland was released, leading to her father's legacy being put into question. Paris' response was that she wanted everyone to basically calm down, which ended up happening anyways. Two months after the documentary's release, TMZ would report that Paris had attempted suicide, which she had denied. She would be in a cameo role in Scream: Resurrection that same year.
2020 would be a big stepping stone for Paris' own career, as this was the year that not only brought on her debut album wilted, but she and Glenn were in the Facebook Watch series Unfiltered: Paris Jackson & Gabriel Glenn, where a lot of details she shared about her life mainly come from. It was here that a fanbase began to grow around her, albeit slowly. Sadly for Paris, she and Glenn made the documentary just around the time that their relationship would hit a rocky end, breaking up in August. This was around the same time that Paris would be in some controversy again. The reason? She was cast in the then-upcoming film Habit in the role of Jesus. Yes, that Jesus. Christians would be stirred up in a frenzy, make a petition for the film to be banned that that garnered nearly 270 thousand signatures, and fail to get the film cancelled as it was already in post-production by the time the petition was made.
In 2021, Paris was cast in the tenth season of American Horror Story in an undisclosed role, possibly before it became Double Feature, which never came to pass. She would, however, be present within the franchise, portraying the Manipulative Bastard Maya in American Horror Stories to much confusion, but her performance on the show was well-received despite the overall frosty reception to the series. That same year, she would go on Red Table Talk where she was interviewed by her friend Willow Smith, discussing her PTSD from the paparazzi following her, but managing to salvage her mental health via various coping mechanisms, including making music. Speaking of, Jackson would release an EP simply called Lost in early 2022. At this point, Jackson as a musician was best known for her soft and raspy voice and more folksy style.
In June of that same year, that sound would change completely with the release of the single lighthouse. Instead of going for the folk sound she had done before, she decided to go into a genre she was more passionate about: grunge. This move was well-received, and so a new signature sound for her was born. In terms of acting, Paris would be in her most well-known role to date a year later: the oddball stripper Hailey in Swarm. It wasn't the best nor most surprising performance on the show, but she ended up pulling her weight. She is set to release an album this year, named bandaid.
Accounts are here
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Selected Works
Film
- Gringo (2018) - Nelly
- The Space Between (2021) - Cory
- Habit (2021) - Jesus
- Sex Appeal (2022) - Danica McCollum
Live-Action Television
- Star (2017) - Rachel Wallace, recurring character, 4 episodes
- Scream: Resurrection (2019) - Becky, 1 episode
- American Horror Stories (2021) - Maya, 3 episodes
- Swarm (2023) - Hailey, 1 episode
Discography
- wilted (2020)
- bandaid (2023 - upcoming)
Tropes associated with Paris Jackson:
- all lowercase letters: All her singles and albums are written in lowercase.
- Casting Gag: In Swarm, Hailey identifies as black. Paris, in real life, also identifies as black. Jackson confirmed on Twitter that she suggested that part of Hailey's dialogue be put in.
- Manipulative Bastard: As tempting drug smuggler Nelly in Gringo and as prankster bully Maya on American Horror Stories.
- Statuesque Stunner: Paris is 5'10" and is well-lauded for her figure and striking gaze.
- What Could Have Been:
- Paris was set to make her acting debut in 2011, in an adaptation of the children's fantasy novel Lundon's Bridge and the Three Keys, and was even put on the cover of one edition of the book, but the movie ultimately did not get produced.
- Due to a joke tweet that she made and British tabloid The Daily Star misinterpreting said tweet, Jackson ended up being rumored to be playing the fucking Twelfth Doctor. It was no more than a rumor, however.
- She was cast in the tenth season of American Horror Story in 2021 in an undisclosed role, but didn't appear in the series itself.
