Background

Ethnicity: Nicole Richie has English, Mexican and Creole African-American ancestry.

Nicole Richie was born on September 21, 1981, in Berkeley, California, the United States. Her biological father Peter Michael Escovedo III, is a noted percussionist and musical director. Her biological mother, Karen Moss, was a backstage assistant for her sister-in-law and noted percussionist and singer, Sheila Cecelia Escovedo (better known as Sheila E) who successfully collaborated with Prince.

When Nicole was a child, her biological parents struggled financially and she often accompanied them to shows. Possibly in 1984, when she was three years old, Lionel Richie spotted her playing the tambourine in one of Prince’s concerts. Amazed, he went backstage to meet her parents. Peter had toured with Richie on various occasions and Karen had assisted him on his 1980 World Tour, and therefore he knew them well.

When he heard about their difficulties, he offered to take Nicole home just to take care of her. Initially, there was no plan to adopt her. Nicole’s parents trusted Richie and realized it was best to take the offer. Richie moved in with Lionel and his wife Brenda Harvey-Richie. During this period, the Richies were just her legal guardian; nothing more. Six years later, the Richies officially adopted Nicole and she took her father's last name.

Education

When Nicole was a young girl, her parents enrolled her in a number of extracurricular activities such as the guitar, cello, violin, as well as piano. She also took a shot at figure skating, where she quickly fell in love with the sport. She was so involved in figure skating that she dreamt of becoming a figure skater.

As a child, Nicole was surrounded by some of the biggest names in the business. Her godfather was Michael Jackson, and her family was incredibly close to the Kardashian family. Because of this, she was able to create an incredible social circle for herself.

In 1986, Nicole enrolled at the prestigious Buckley School, Sherman Oaks, California, where she became a close friend of Paris Hilton. After leaving Buckley School, she entered Montclair College Preparatory School, graduating from there in 1999. She joined the University of Arizona in Tucson, studying arts and media for two years. Thereafter, she abandoned her studies and returned home to Los Angeles.

Career

In 2003, Nicole Richie began her career by appearing in a reality television series called, The Simple Life, with Paris Hilton. The series, which ran for five seasons, showed the duo struggling to do low-paying manual jobs, such as cleaning rooms, serving meals in a fast food joint, and farm work.

The series, which opened on Fox on December 2, 2003, became an instant hit. For the first season, they spent one month in Altus, Arkansas, without their cell phones and credit cards, working on the farm, making a mess of everything, and getting fired from every job they took up.

As the show progressed, it started attracting more and more viewers. For the second season, subtitled Road Trip, they traveled around in a pickup truck, working as maids in a nudist camp, catching crayfish and making sausages. It was premiered on June 16, 2004. Richie continued working with Hilton through their very public falling out but reconciled in 2006 before starring in their show's fifth season.

While she was filming for The Simple Life in 2004, Richie appeared in several television series, such as Six Feet Under, Eve, Rock Me Baby, and American Dreams. Richie also pursued a musical career, joining the rock band Darling in 2004, featuring model Josie Maran and socialite sisters Soleil and Sofia Alberti, releasing the single, Dandelion.

Richie then made her acting debut as a cheerleader in the movie Kids in America in 2005. Richie went on to write a semi-autobiographical novel, The Truth About Diamonds in 2005. Her second book, Priceless, came out in September 2010.

In the early 2000s, Nicole Richie began modeling and quickly became the face of Bongo Jeans and Jimmy Choo clothing. In April 2007, she announced that she was going to start a line that would sell jewelry, accessories, perfume, and sunglasses. She also revealed her plans to publish style books.

In 2008, Richie launched her own jewelry line, House of Harlow 1960. Her retro-styled pieces have been well received and worn by the likes of Madonna and Ashlee Simpson. The following year, Richie added clothing to her business empire. She launched Winter Kate in spring 2010 and it has blossomed into a popular high-end fashion line.

Around July 2011, House of Harlow unveiled a 14-piece handbag collection. Next year, she launched her first fragrance, Nicole. Around the same time, she launched another collection for Macy’s Impulse Beauty line. Concurrently, she also continued to appear on television.

Quickly becoming an influential force in the fashion world, Richie shared her design insights on the reality competition Fashion Star in 2012. She, along with Jessica Simpson and John Varvatos, act as mentors to a group of aspiring designers. Richie was also a judge on Making the Cut.

In 2014-2015, she starred in Candidly Nicole, a reality television show that ran for two seasons on VH1, each season having eight episodes. The same year, she appeared as herself in one episode of Empire and one episode of Barely Famous. Richie also starred as Portia Scott-Griffith in the 2017 TV show Great News. It was her first regular series.

Achievements

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  In 2010, Richie won the Entrepreneur of the Year award for her brand, House of Harlow 1960, at the Glamour Women of the Year Awards. In the same year, House of Harlow 1960 was nominated in the Celebrity Fashion Line category at the 2010 Teen Choice Awards.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Priceless: A Novel

    (Tall, blond, and willowy, this twenty-two-year-old seems ...)

    2010
  • The Truth About Diamonds: A Novel

    (In her electrifying first novel, Nicole Richie tells the ...)

    2005

• movie

  • Kids in America

    (When Holden Donovan finds himself expelled for criticizin...)

    2005

• TV series

  • Great News

    (Getting along with office colleagues can be rough, but wo...)

    2017
  • Bless This Mess

    (A single-camera comedy about a newlywed couple who gives ...)

    2019

• TV show

  • Candidly Nicole

    (Based on Nicole's hilarious (and often inappropriate) Twi...)

    2014
  • The Simple Life

    (Paris and Nicole get a reality check when they learn what...)

    2003

Religion

Nicole Richie is a Christian.

Politics

In 2008, Richie became a supporter of Barack Obama. During the Democratic primary that year, Richie made her one and only campaign contribution of which there is a record. She donated $2,300 to help get him his party’s nomination and eventually to the White House. She showed her support again during the 2012 United States presidential elections.

Views

Richie is known for her philanthropic work. In 2007, she founded The Richie Madden Children's Foundation with Joel Madden for bettering the lives of children. In 2008, she worked to raise funds for cyclone-hit Malaysia. She is also a board member of the Environment Media Association. In 2010 they worked together with Beyond Shelter, a non-profit organization devoted to providing shelter for homeless families in Los Angeles.

Quotations: "You just have to go after what you want, and if it doesn't want you back, then, so be it - it doesn't deserve you anyways."

Personality

As a teenager, Richie began partying hard and experimenting with drugs and alcohol. Continuing the pattern of her teenage years, Richie was busted in February 2003 when police found heroin in her Mercedes-Benz. She pleaded guilty to all charges and was sentenced to probation and ordered to attend the Sierra Tucson drug rehab center in Arizona.

Richie was arrested on December 11, 2006, after she drove her black Mercedes-Benz sport utility vehicle the wrong way on a freeway in Burbank, California. She reportedly told authorities she had smoked marijuana and taken the prescription painkiller Vicodin. Richie pleaded guilty in July to a misdemeanor charge, avoiding a potential year in jail because it was only a second DUI conviction.

Physical Characteristics: In early 2006, due to her excessive weight loss, it was rumored that Nicole Richie was suffering from an eating disorder; but she categorically denied it. Later it was reported that she was undergoing treatment for her inability to put on weight.

Interests

• reading

• Politicians

  Barack Obama

• Writers

  Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts, The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah, Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins, Diary of a Murderer: And Other Stories by Young-ha Kim, Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, Running with Scissors: A Memoir by Augusten Burroughs, Untamed by Glennon Doyle, Think Little by Wendell Berry, Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick by Zora Neale Hurston, Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde, To Shake the Sleeping Self: A Journey from Oregon, to Patagonia and a Quest for a Life by Jedidiah Jenkins, For Small Creatures Such as We by Sasha Sagan, Grand Union: Stories by Zadie Smith

• Sport & Clubs

  figure skating

• Athletes

  Kobe Bryant

• Music & Bands

  Janis Joplin, Good Charlotte, Lynard Skynard, The Zombies, The Animals, Led Zepplin, Avenged Sevenfold, Major Lazer, Madonna

Connections

Richie began dating guitarist Joel Madden of the band Good Charlotte in 2006. On July 31, 2007, Richie announced that she and Madden would be having their first child together. She gave birth to daughter Harlow Winter Kate Madden on January 11, 2008, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

The couple welcomed their second child, son Sparrow James Midnight Madden, on September 9, 2009. Around this time, Richie became engaged to Madden. The pair tied the knot on December 11, 2010, at the estate of Richie's father.

Spouse:

Joel Madden

Adoptive father:

Lionel Richie

While Lionel first met Nicole when she was just 4 years old, he didn’t make the decision to adopt her right there and then. However, within a year, Lionel recalled that Nicole was already calling him "dad." It only took a year for the future star to see Lionel as her father, while the adoption only came through five years later.

Adoptive mother:

Brenda Harvey

biological father:

Peter Michael Escovedo

Biological mother:

Karen Moss

Daughter:

Harlow Winter Kate Madden

Son:

Sparrow James Midnight Madden

Adoptive sister:

Sofia Richie

Adoptive brother:

Miles Brockman Richie

godfather:

Michael Jackson

In 2003, Nicole defended Michael Jackson when he was charged with abusing children. She said that as a child she had spent a lot of time with him and experienced nothing inappropriate.

Friend:

Kim Kardashian

Friend:

Kourtney Kardashian

Friend:

Khloé Kardashian

Friend:

Paris Hilton

References

• Nicole Richie on Instagram