Aaron Paul

Aaron Paul was born Aaron Paul Sturtevant, in Emmett, Idaho, on August 27, 1979, the youngest of four children born to Darla (née Haynes) and Baptist minister Robert Sturtevant. He was born a month premature in his parents' bathroom. He grew up participating in church plays. He graduated in 1997 from Centennial High School in Boise, Idaho, after which he drove to Los Angeles in his 1982 Toyota Corolla with his mother and $6,000 in savings. Soon after arriving in Los Angeles, he appeared on an episode of the CBS game show The Price Is Right, which aired on January 3, 2000. Appearing under his birth name, he played and lost his pricing game and overbid on his Showcase. He also worked as a movie theater usher at Universal Studios in Hollywood.In 1996, Paul went to Los Angeles for the International Modeling and Talent Association competition. He won runner-up and signed with a manager. He starred in the music videos for Korn's song "Thoughtless" and Everlast's song "White Trash Beautiful". He was also featured in television commercials for Juicy Fruit, Corn Pops, and Vanilla Coke. He appeared in the films Whatever It Takes (2000), Help! I'm a Fish (2001), K-PAX (2001), National Lampoon's Van Wilder (2002), Bad Girls From Valley High (2005), Choking Man (2006), Mission: Impossible III (2006), The Last House on the Left (2009), and Need for Speed (2014). He starred as "Weird Al" Yankovic in the Funny or Die short Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2010), and has guest starred on television shows such as The Guardian, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami, ER, Sleeper Cell, Veronica Mars, The X-Files, Ghost Whisperer, Criminal Minds, and Bones.

Paul first became known for his role as Scott Quittman on HBO's Big Love, on which he appeared fourteen times. In 2008, he began playing Jesse Pinkman on the AMC series Breaking Bad. His character was originally meant to die during the first season, but after seeing the chemistry between Paul and the lead actor Bryan Cranston, the series creator Vince Gilligan changed his mind and modified the original plans to include Jesse as a main character. For his role in Breaking Bad, Paul was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, and 2014; he won the award in 2010, 2012, and 2014.

Paul starred in the film Smashed, which was one of the official selections for the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. In an October 2012 interview with ESPN, he spoke about his childhood experience as a Boise State Broncos fan and discussed the challenges of portraying a meth addict in Breaking Bad. In 2012 and 2013, he made appearances on Tron: Uprising, voicing a character named Cyrus.

In September 2013, he was featured on Zen Freeman's dance song, "Dance Bitch". He made a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live's 39th season opener as "meth nephew", a relative of Bobby Moynihan's popular "drunk uncle" character. In 2014, Paul starred in Need for Speed, as a street racer recently released from prison who takes revenge on a wealthy business associate. Paul stars alongside Juliette Lewis in the family drama Hellion, as the drunken father of two young vandals. Also in 2014, he co-starred in the biblical epic Exodus: Gods and Kings, portraying the Hebrew prophet Joshua.

In December 2013, Netflix announced that Paul would be a cast member on the animated series BoJack Horseman. On March 3, 2014, he appeared on WWE Raw to promote Need for Speed, by entering the arena in a sports car with Dolph Ziggler, providing commentary for Ziggler's match against Alberto Del Rio, and helping Ziggler win by distracting Del Rio. On September 23, 2014, it was announced that Paul would play the young Louis Drax's father who becomes the focus of a criminal investigation after his son has a near-fatal fall in an upcoming Miramax film titled The 9th Life of Louis Drax, a supernatural thriller based on a book of the same name.

In 2016, Paul began playing Eddie Lane, a man who in a life crisis joins a cult but subsequently questions his faith, in the Hulu series The Path, which debuted on March 30, 2016. Paul voiced the main protagonist, Nyx Ulric, in Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV, released in July 2016.

In June 2018, Paul joined the cast of the Apple TV+ crime drama series Truth Be Told, opposite Octavia Spencer and Lizzy Caplan.

In September 2018, Paul joined the cast of the HBO science fiction western series Westworld for the third season, portraying the character Caleb Nichols.

Paul stars in the sci-fi thriller Dual alongside Karen Gillan, which was filmed entirely in Tampere, Finland.

In 2023, Paul starred in a main role in the third episode of the sixth series of Black Mirror, "Beyond the Sea".