Of Caucasian, Black Creole and Mexican decent, Nicole Camille Escovedo, who would later be known as Nicole Richie, was born on September 21, 1981 in Berkeley, California, to Peter Michael Escovedo and an unknown Caucasian mother. Three-year-old Nicole moved in with Lionel Richie and his then-wife Brenda Harvey-Richie and was officially adopted by the couple when she reached 9. She is also the niece of '80s pop percussionist Sheila E. and the goddaughter of King of Pop, Michael Jackson.
Nicole attended The Buckley School (with best friend Paris Hilton) and studied for two years at the University of Arizona. She also graduated from the Montclair College Prep School. Currently, she lives in Lionel's 40 million dollar mansion in Los Angeles with her dogs, Honeychild and Foxy Cleopatra.
"I went to the University of Arizona. I stopped because I went there for two years and I felt like I experienced college or whatever. I'm over it. I like Hollywood better." Nicole Richie
Dropping out of college after studying two years, Nicole Richie gave her music talent a try. She set up the rock band "Darling" with Josie Maran (model), Soleil and Sofia Alberti. Nicole then branched out to acting, replacing Paris Hilton's sister, Nicky, in Fox's reality soap, The Simple Life. The series was a hit and spawned the following installments: The Simple Life 2: Road Trip and The Simple Life 3: Interns, in which Nicole reprise her role. While working on the sitcom, Nicole guest starred in several shows, including Eve, Punk'd, Rock Me Baby, and MADtv. She also appeared as a guest in such shows as Howard Stern, Ellen: The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
Nicole Richie has raised the publics' eyebrow several times. She was arrested for driving with a suspended driving license and heroine possession in 2003. As for her private life, 5' 2" inches tall Nicole, who has nine tattoos and many piercings, briefly dated Cher's son, singer/actor Elijah Blue Allman and became engaged to disc jockey Adam Goldstein (a.k.a. DJ AM) in February of 2004.
More recent, her friendship with best pal Paris Hilton gained attention after the hotel heiress announced that they were no longer friends. Hilton said, "It's no big secret that Nicole and I are no longer friends... Nicole knows what she did, and that's all I'm ever going to say about it."
As for her music career, Nicole Richie is attempting to break in to the music scene and has recorded her debut album. She revealed that her first album will generally be pop, and she will play the cello, piano, and violin.
"It's like a mixture of rock and soul, a little bit of dance also. I play piano, violin and cello, so I'm gonna be playing (those instruments) on my album as well." Nicole Richie |
