Liza Weil :: Character Guides

Paris Geller was born in December of 1984 to very wealthy, socialite parents, so rich in fact that they hired a Portuguese nanny to practically raise Paris for them. Her parents are rarely seen on the series, but her nanny has been in several episodes, even her graduation when her parents were too busy to attend.

Paris and Rory first met at Chilton and quickly became arch-nemeses when Paris realized that Rory might outscore her and knock her down from her top-of-the-class standing. At Chilton, Paris was best friends with Madeline and Louise, both of whom were polar opposites of Paris – more concerned with their appearance and boys than excelling at school. Eventually Paris and Rory became friends, and together became the Chilton school body president and vice-president during their senior year.

The Geller family tradition was to attend Harvard, a goal that Paris had worked for her entire life. She involved herself in every extracurricular activity possible, received “As” in all of her classes, and was crushed when Harvard failed to accept her. During Rory’s first day at Yale, she was shocked to discover that Paris had decided to attend Yale and that her father had arranged for her and Rory to share a room (along with Janet, who Paris strongly disliked; and Tanna, a child prodigy).

Though never being interested in boys, Paris was asked out by Jamie during a leadership convention in Washington, D.C. They dated during the third season and Paris hid their relationship from Madeline and Louise. Eventually, Paris lost her virginity to Jamie (which she decided was to blame for her not getting into Harvard), but their relationship ended soon after Paris started her freshman year at Yale. While at Yale, Paris has been involved with two men, the first being Professor Asher Flemming. Paris fell in love with the professor, but was forced to hide their taboo relationship from the rest of the school, except Rory after she caught the two kissing in an alleyway. This relationship also didn’t last due to Asher dying of a heart attack while he and Paris were at Oxford University during the summer. Her next and current relationship is with Doyle, the editor of the Yale Daily News. They fell for each other while speed dating, had sex hours later, and have had a highly competitive, yet loving relationship ever since.

During the sixth season, Paris’ life was thrown off when her parents fled the country and ended up exhausting all of her funds except her the money in her trust fund and her tuition money. Paris was forced to get her first job, a server at a D.A.R. function, and despite her new circumstances, Paris became editor of the Yale Daily News. However, her new found power went straight to her head and the other staff unseated Paris and had Rory take her place. This caused a fight between Paris and Rory, but they soon reconciled and returned to being close friends.