Sarah Catharine Paulson is an American actor best known for her role in American Horror Story (2011–).

Sarah Paulson at a carpet event with her hands inside her dress pockets and smiling.
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Paulson has had other notable performances in 12 Years Slave (2013), Run (2020), and M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass (2019). In 2016, she portrayed real-life prosecutor Marcia Clark in The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story (2016), which earned her critical praise. Her impressive resume includes more than 70 acting credits on screen, as well as a number of roles in stage productions. Her work has earned a Golden Globe Award as well as four nominations, a Primetime Emmy along with seven nominations, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and three Critics’ Choice Television Awards.

In 2017, Time named her one of the 100 most influential people of the year.[1]

Although she avoids labels, Paulson has been very open about her romances with both men and women. When asked to talk about her sexuality in a 2015 interview, she said,

All I can say is, I’ve done both, and I don’t let either experience define me. I don’t let having been with a man make me think I am heterosexual, or make me want to call myself that, because I know I have been attracted to women — and have lived with women. [2]

She has been in a relationship with Holland Taylor since 2015, living together in Los Angeles.