Aaron Paul Sturtevant was born August 27, 1979 and is an American actor. He is best known for portraying Jesse Pinkman in the AMC series Breaking Bad.
Paul began his career with roles in several music videos and guest roles in television, before taking minor roles in films such as Mission: Impossible III (2006) and The Last House on the Left (2009). In 2007, he had a recurring role as Scott Quittman on the HBO series Big Love. Following his breakthrough, he began starring in films such as Need for Speed (2014), A Long Way Down (2014), and Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014). Since 2014, he has been the voice of Todd Chavez on the Netflix animated series BoJack Horseman, on which he is also an executive producer, and portrayed Eddie Lane in the Hulu drama series The Path from 2016 to 2018.
He will reprise the role of Jesse Pinkman in the upcoming film El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, set to be released on Netflix on October 11, 2019.
He was born in Emmett, Idaho, the youngest of four children born to Darla (née Haynes) and Robert Sturtevant, a Baptist minister. He was born a month premature in his parents’ bathroom. Paul attended Centennial High School in Boise, Idaho, graduating in 1997. After graduation, he drove to Los Angeles in his 1982 Toyota Corolla with his mother and $6,000 in savings. Prior to gaining fame, he appeared on an episode of The Price Is Right, which aired on January 3, 2000. Appearing under his real name, he played and lost Dice Game and overbid by $132 on the 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 in the competition and signed with a manager. He starred in the music videos for the Korn song “Thoughtless” and the Everlast 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). He also 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, Bones, and 3rd Rock from the Sun.
Paul became engaged to Lauren Parsekian in Paris on January 1, 2012. The two had met at the Coachella Festival. They were married on May 26, 2013, in a 1920s Parisian carnival-themed wedding in Malibu, California; music was provided by Foster the People and John Mayer. Paul emailed the song “Beauty” by The Shivers to everyone on the guest list and asked them to learn the words so they could sing along during the ceremony. In September 2017, he announced that he and Parsekian were expecting their first child. Their daughter, Story Annabelle, was born in February 2018.
To commemorate the final episode of Breaking Bad, Paul and co-star Bryan Cranston both got Breaking Bad tattoos on the last day of filming; Paul had the phrase “no half measures” tattooed onto his bicep, while Cranston got the show’s logo tattooed on one of his fingers.
In 2013, Paul helped raise $1.8 million for Parsekian’s non-profit anti-bullying organization, the Kind Campaign. The winners of the contest won a trip to the Hollywood Forever Cemetery screening of the final episode of Breaking Bad. During a ceremony at the Egyptian Theatre in Boise, Idaho, governor Butch Otter declared October 1 to be “Aaron Paul Sturtevant Day”.
