Kim Kardashian

Kimberly Noel Kardashian West (born October 21, 1980) is an American media personality, socialite, model, and businesswoman. Kardashian first gained media attention as a friend and stylist of Paris Hilton, but received wider notice after a 2002 sex tape, Kim Kardashian, Superstar, with her then-boyfriend Ray J, was released in 2007. Later that year, she and her family began to appear in the E! reality television series Keeping Up with the Kardashians (2007–2021). Its success soon led to the formation of the spin-off series Kourtney and Kim Take New York (2011–2012) and Kourtney and Kim Take Miami (2009–2013).

Kardashian has developed an online and social media presence, including hundreds of millions of followers on Twitter and Instagram. She has released a variety of products tied to her name, including the 2014 mobile game Kim Kardashian: Hollywood, a variety of clothing and products, the 2015 photo book Selfish and her eponymous personal app. Her relationship with rapper Kanye West has also received significant media coverage; they married in 2014 and have four children together. As an actress, Kardashian has appeared in films including Disaster Movie (2008), Deep in the Valley (2009), and Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor (2013).

In recent years, Kardashian has focused on her own businesses by founding KKW Beauty and KKW Fragrance in 2017.In 2019, she launched shapewear company Skims, which was previously called "Kimono" but changed its name following widespread backlash. Kardashian has also become more politically active by lobbying president Donald Trump for prison reform and lobbying for Alice Marie Johnson to be granted clemency. She has advocated for the recognition of the Armenian genocide on numerous occasions. Kardashian is also planning to become a lawyer by doing a four-year law apprenticeship that is supervised by the legal nonprofit #cut50, which was co-founded by Van Jones.

Time magazine included Kardashian on their list of 2015's 100 most influential people. Both critics and admirers have described her as exemplifying the notion of being famous for being famous. She was reported to be the highest-paid reality television personality of 2015, with her estimated total earnings exceeding US$53 million.

Breakthrough with reality television (2006–2009)

Kardashian in 2007

In 2006, Kardashian entered the business world with her two sisters and opened the boutique shop D-A-S-H in Calabasas, California.[32] In February 2007, a sex tape made by Kardashian and Ray J in 2002 was leaked. Kardashian filed a lawsuit against Vivid Entertainment, who distributed the film as Kim Kardashian, Superstar. She later dropped the suit and settled for a reported US$5 million, allowing Vivid to release the tape.[5] Several media outlets later criticized her and the family for using the sex tape's release as a publicity stunt to promote their forthcoming reality show.

In October 2007, Kardashian and her mother, Kris Jenner, her step-parent Caitlyn Jenner, her siblings Kourtney, Khloé, and Rob Kardashian, and half-sisters Kendall and Kylie Jenner, began to appear in the reality television series Keeping Up with the Kardashians. The series proved successful for E!, and has led to the creations of spin-offs including Kourtney and Kim Take New York and Kourtney and Kim Take Miami. The flagship series concluded in 2021 after 294 episodes. In one of the episodes, Kim discussed an offer from Playboy to appear nude in the magazine. That December, Kardashian posed in a nude pictorial for Playboy.

In 2008, she made her feature film debut in the disaster film spoof Disaster Movie, in which she appeared as a character named Lisa. That same year, she was a participant on season seven of Dancing with the Stars, where she was partnered with Mark Ballas. Kardashian was the third contestant to be eliminated.[44] In January 2009, Kardashian made a cameo appearance during an episode of the sitcom How I Met Your Mother, in the episode "Benefits." In April, she released a workout DVD series through her television production company Kimsaprincess Productions, LLC which has seen the release of three successful workout videos, Fit in Your Jeans by Friday, with trainers Jennifer Galardi and Patrick Goudeau. Kardashian played Elle in four episodes of the television series Beyond the Break.

Kardashian became a guest host of WrestleMania XXIV and guest judge on America's Next Top Model in August of that year. In September, Fusion Beauty and Seven Bar Foundation launched "Kiss Away Poverty", with Kardashian as the face of the campaign. For each LipFusion lipgloss sold, US$1 went to the Foundation to fund women entrepreneurs in the US. The following month, she released her first fragrance, self-titled "Kim Kardashian." In December 2009, Kardashian made a guest star appearance on CBS's CSI: NY with Vanessa Minnillo.

Kardashian appeared on the cover and in a pictorial in Paper's winter 2014 issue, photographed by Jean-Paul Goude.On the cover, her nude buttocks are featured above the caption: "Break the Internet", which generated considerable comment in both social and traditional media.A Time magazine writer commented that, unlike previous celebrities' nudes that represented the women's rebellion against repressed society and "trying to tear down" barriers, Kardashian's exhibition was "just provocation and bluster, repeated images that seem to offer us some sort of truth or insight but are really just self serving. We want there to be something more, some reason or context, some great explanation that tells us what it is like to live in this very day and age, but there is not. Kim Kardashian's ass is nothing but an empty promise."[However, the stunt "set a new benchmark" in social media response, and Paper's website received 15.9 million views in one day, compared with 25,000 views on an average day.

In June 2014, Kardashian released a mobile game for iPhone and Android called Kim Kardashian: Hollywood. The objective of the game is to become a Hollywood star or starlet. The game supports a free to play model, meaning the game is free to download, but charges for in-game items. The game was a hit, earning US$1.6 million in its first five days of release. In July, the game's developer Glu Mobile announced that the game was the fifth highest earning game in Apple's App Store.[84] Kardashian voiced the role of an alien in an episode of the adult animated series American Dad!, in season 11 (2014–15) in the episode titled "Blagsnarst, A Love Story" on September 21, 2014. In May 2015, Kardashian released a portfolio book called Selfish, a 325-page collection of self-taken photos of herself.[87] In December 2015, Kardashian released an emoji pack for iOS devices called Kimoji. The app was a best-seller, becoming one of the top 5 most bought apps that week. In August 2015, Kardashian was the cover model for Vogue Spain.

As of November 2016, as per CBC Marketplace and interviews with celebrity endorsement experts, Kim Kardashian was paid between $75,000 and $300,000 for each post that she made on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter endorsing beauty products like waist trainers, teeth whiteners as well as Coca-Cola and well-known charities. Experts think that celebrities offer fake glimpses into their lives to make viewers fall for their advertising pitches, curated to look as though the viewer is catching them in a spontaneous moment when they are mostly staged.

By 2018, according to Business Insider, Kardashian was charging $720,000 per Instagram post. Even though engagement data indicates that her posts are worth slightly less, she is regularly making headlines and this allows her to demand a premium above any calculated Instagram sponsored post price. Kardashian made a cameo appearance in the heist film Ocean's 8, which was released on June 8, 2018. In 2019, Kardashian appeared at the Met Gala with her figure hugging corset-induced Thierry Mugler dress. She hosted Saturday Night Live in October 2021 and in her monologue, she made fun of her estranged-husband Kanye West, her mom's ex-husband Caitlyn Jenner, her sisters, O.J Simpson and others.