Meet Sarah Paulson’s Parents: Douglas Lyle Paulson II and Catharine Paulson

The Emmy, Golden Globe, and Tony Award-winning career of Sarah Paulson began with two parents who shaped her early years in very different ways: Douglas Lyle Paulson II, a manufacturing executive, and Catharine Paulson, a former Florida debutante who raised her daughters in New York while working as a waitress. Their divorce when Sarah was five set the course of her childhood, moving her from Tampa to Maine and then to New York City.

Sarah Catharine Paulson, known professionally as Sarah Paulson, is an American actress and producer, best known for American Horror Story, The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story, and Ratched. She won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for Appropriate, and her portrayal of prosecutor Marcia Clark earned her an Emmy.

Sarah was born on December 17, 1974, in Tampa, Florida, and is 51 years old. She is a White American with English, Scottish, Danish, German, and French ancestry, and she identifies as a Christian.

Her parents are Douglas Lyle Paulson II and Catharine Paulson, and she has two siblings: her sister Liz Paulson, a casting director, and her half-sister Rachel Paulson, an actress and filmmaker. She grew up in South Tampa until her parents divorced, then lived in Maine, Queens, Gramercy Park, and Park Slope, Brooklyn. She attended the Berkeley Carroll School, graduated from the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, and trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Sarah has never married, so she has no husband and no marriages, and she has no children. She was engaged to playwright Tracy Letts in the 1990s, dated actress Cherry Jones from 2004 to 2009, and has been in a relationship with actress Holland Taylor since 2015. She stands 168 cm (5 ft 6 in) tall, and her net worth is $12 million.

Douglas Lyle Paulson II

Douglas Lyle Paulson II is Sarah Paulson’s father. He worked as a manufacturing executive in the door manufacturing industry, and he carries the name of his father, the Rev. Douglas Lyle Paulson Sr., making Sarah’s paternal grandfather a clergyman. The family’s Danish roots come through the Paulson line, since Sarah’s paternal great-grandfather was of Danish descent.

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Douglas was married to Catharine when Sarah was born in Tampa in 1974, and the family lived in South Tampa. The marriage ended when Sarah was five, and she moved north with her mother. Douglas stayed in Florida, and Sarah returned each summer to spend time with him. Those summers were her main link to her father and to the city where she was born.

Catharine Paulson

Catharine Gordon Paulson, born Catharine Gordon Dolcater, is Sarah Paulson’s mother. She was a debutante in Florida and an aspiring writer, and she gave birth to Sarah at the age of 22. Sarah carries her mother’s name as her middle name, Catharine. Her maternal grandmother, June Unger, was born in Alabama.

After the divorce, Catharine took her daughters to Maine and then to New York City, where she supported the family by working as a waitress while pursuing her interest in writing. The family moved between Queens, Gramercy Park, and finally Park Slope, Brooklyn, and money was tight throughout.

Sarah has often pointed to her mother’s determination as an early example of resilience, and it was Catharine who raised her in the city where she would enroll in performing arts school and begin acting straight out of high school.

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