Early life

Deen was born Paula Ann Hiers in Albany, Georgia, the daughter of Corrie A. Hiers (née Paul) and Earl Wayne Hiers, Sr. She grew up Baptist, and is still deeply devoted to her faith. Her parents died before she was 23, and an early marriage ended in divorce. In her 20s, Deen suffered from panic attacks and agoraphobia. She then focused on cooking for her family as something she could do without leaving her house. Her grandmother Irene Paul had taught her the hand-me-down art of Southern cooking; one of the only places she felt safe was at her own stove, making thousands of pots of chicken and dumplings. She later moved to Savannah, Georgia, with her sons. In 1989, she divorced her husband, Jimmy Deen, to whom she had been married since 1965. She was left with only $200 and money was tight raising both her kids and her younger brother, Earl ("Bubba"). She tried hanging wallpaper, working as a bank teller, and selling real estate and insurance. She then started a catering service, making sandwiches and meals, which her sons Jamie and Bobby delivered.

Restaurants

Deen's home business, The Bag Lady, soon outgrew her kitchen. She first moved into the Best Western on Savannah's southside on Abercorn Street in 1991 with a restaurant called The Lady. In January 1996, Deen opened her restaurant, The Lady & Sons, in downtown Savannah, on West Congress Street. Within a few years, the restaurant moved to the old White Hardware building on Whitaker. USA Today named The Lady & Sons the "International Meal of the Year" in 1999. The specialty is a buffet of Southern "comfort foods". Every buffet meal includes a salad bar and one dessert. Her sons are also involved in managing the restaurant, which is popular with tourists visiting Savannah.

In 2008, Deen opened another restaurant, the Paula Deen Buffet, at Harrah's Tunica Casino in Tunica County, Mississippi. It has an entrance facade modeled on Deen's home in Savannah and features Southern cooking. As of June 2013, the Paula Deen Buffet does not appear on Harrah's Tunica Casino's website list of restaurants.

In September 2009, Deen announced a new dessert line to be sold at Walmart including signature pies Apple Crunch Top, Dark Rum Pecan, Old Fashioned Fudge and St. Louis style Gooey Butter Cake bars.

In addition to these, Deen co-owned Uncle Bubba's Oyster House in Savannah Georgia. It underwent an "abrupt closure" on April 4, 2014 with a spokesperson saying that there were discussions about development of the waterfront property.

On April 27, 2015, Deen officially opened Paula Deen's Family Kitchen, her new restaurant and retail concept, in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

On January 25, 2016, the city of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina received an application for a building permit for a two-story Paula Deen's Family Kitchen, to replace the 20-year-old Carlos 'n Charlie's at Broadway at the Beach.

Books and magazines

In 1997, Deen self-published The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cooking and The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cooking 2. Both cookbooks featured traditional Southern recipes. She has since published two more, written with Martha Nesbit. Deen has appeared on QVC and on The Oprah Winfrey Show (first in 2002, twice in 2007 and once in 2010). Her life story is featured in Extraordinary Comebacks: 201 Inspiring Stories of Courage, Triumph, and Success (2007, Sourcebooks).

In April 2007, Simon & Schuster published Deen's memoir, It Ain't All About the Cookin'. She launched a lifestyle magazine called Cooking with Paula Deen in November 2005, which claimed a circulation of 7.5 million in March 2009.

Food Network and other television

Deen's relationship with Food Network began in 1999, when her friend Erin Lewis introduced her to Gordon Elliott, who then introduced her to her then agent, Artist's Agency owner Barry Weiner. Elliott took her through the city for a series of Doorknock Dinners episodes. She also appeared on Ready, Set, Cook!. Deen was invited to shoot a pilot named Afternoon Tea in early 2001. The network liked it, and eventually gave Deen her own show, Paula's Home Cooking, which premiered in November 2002. Paula's Home Cooking was originally taped in Millbrook, New York at the home of Gordon Elliott, the show's executive producer. Deen mentioned on the March 13, 2006, edition of The Daily Buzz that the next batch of episodes of her show would be taped at her home in Savannah, Georgia. According to the first of those episodes, actual production at her new Savannah home began in November 2005.

Since then, Deen has been given two more Food Network shows, Paula's Party and Paula's Best Dishes. Paula's Party premiered on the Food Network in 2006 and Paula's Best Dishes debuted on June 8, 2008.

A televised biography of Deen was aired on an episode of the Food Network's Chefography program, in March 2006.

On June 21, 2013, due to a controversy regarding Deen's admission, during a deposition for a lawsuit, that she had used racial slurs, The Food Network announced they will not renew her contract.

It was announced that on September 24, 2014 Paula will unveil her very own network. The network is said to be a full digital experience that lets users access Paula's southern cooking on computer, smartphones and tablets.

On March 11, 2015, it was announced that Paula Deen had officially kicked off her comeback with the launch of the all-new Paula Deen Channel on Roku.

On September 2, 2015, Deen was announced as one of the celebrities to compete on the 21st season of Dancing with the Stars. She was paired with professional dancer Louis van Amstel. The couple was eliminated in the sixth week of competition, finishing in 9th place overall.

Personal life

In 2004, Deen married Michael Groover (born 1956), a tugboat captain in the Port of Savannah, Georgia. Deen has two children from a previous marriage. The wedding was featured in a Food Network show in 2004. Their wedding took place at Bethesda Academy in Savannah. Paula is a supporter of Bethesda Academy, and asked Old Savannah Tours to donate $1 to the organization for each ticket purchased for the Paula Deen Store ticket sale. In January 2012, she announced she has had type 2 diabetes for the last three years.

Other work

Deen made her film debut in Elizabethtown (2005), starring Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst. She played the aunt of Bloom's character, and her cooking was featured. A Food Network special, Paula Goes Hollywood, aired in conjunction with the film's premiere.

According to Variety, Deen will be joining the cast of ABC's hit show, which has been announcing new cast members in piecemeal fashion.

Awards and honors

In June 2007, Deen won a Daytime Emmy Award (Outstanding Lifestyle Host) for Paula's Home Cooking. In October 2010, she was selected as the Grand Marshal of the Tournament of Roses Parade, and presided over the 2011 Rose Parade before the Rose Bowl Game on January 1, 2011.

Criticism

Unhealthy recipes

Deen has faced extensive criticism for the high amounts of fat, salt, and sugar in her recipes. She faced particularly strong objections with the release of Cookbook for the Lunch-Box Set, a cookbook aimed at children, with Barbara Walters saying of the book, "You tell kids to have cheesecake for breakfast. You tell them to have chocolate cake and meatloaf for lunch. And french fries. Doesn't it bother you that you're adding to this?" Celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain commented in 2011 that he "would think twice before telling an already obese nation that it's OK to eat food that is killing us".

On January 17, 2012, Deen announced that she had been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes three years before. It was also disclosed that Deen is a paid spokesperson for the Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk. She was called a hypocrite for continuing to promote her high-fat and sugar diet while disclosing her medical condition only when it benefited her in representing the drug company to market their diabetes management program.

Racial epithet controversy

In June 2013, Deen was the target of a lawsuit alleging racial and sexual discrimination filed by Lisa Jackson. It alleged that Deen made derogatory remarks regarding African Americans in the presence of Jackson, whose nieces are half black. Jackson also alleged that Deen mused about wedding plans for her brother with a "true Southern plantation-style theme" with black male servers but rejected the plans "because the media would be on me about that" (Deen denied having used the "N-word" when discussing the wedding waitstaff). The case was heard in August 2013, with the judge dismissing the suit with prejudice, meaning it cannot be re-filed. Both sides agreed to dismiss the lawsuit "without any award of costs or fees to any party".

Deen stated in her deposition that she had used the "N-word" at times. Specifically, she recalled telling her husband about an incident "when a black man burst into the bank that I was working at and put a gun to my head. ... I didn't feel real favorable towards him." Asked if she had used the word since then, she said: "I'm sure I have, but it's been a very long time maybe in repeating something that was said to me ... probably a conversation between blacks. I don't - I don't know. But that's just not a word that we use as time has gone on. Things have changed since the 60's in the south."

In the time between the filing of the suit and the suit being dismissed, Deen had cookery programs, publishing deals and endorsement contracts cancelled by Food Network, Smithfield Foods, Walmart, Target, QVC, Caesars Entertainment, Novo Nordisk, J.C. Penney, Sears, Kmart and her then-publisher Ballantine Books; however, several companies have expressed their intent to continue their endorsement deals with Deen. During the same time, sales of Deen's cookbooks soared.

There were echoes of the controversy in a 2013 episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, the fictional story of a southern TV chef, played by Cybill Shepherd.

Former President Jimmy Carter urged that Deen be forgiven, stating, "I think she has been punished, perhaps overly severely, for her honesty in admitting it and for the use of the word in the distant past. She's apologized profusely."

Filmography

Year	Title	Role
2002-2013	Paula's Home Cooking (television)	Host
2005	Elizabethtown	Aunt Dora
2006-2008	Paula's Party (television)	Host
2006	Chefography (television)	Subject
2008-2013	Paula's Best Dishes (television)	Host
2009	Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List (television)	Guest star
2009	Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (television)	Guest star
2011	Top Chef (television)	Guest judge
2012	Oprah's Next Chapter	Subject
2012	Who Do You Think You Are? (television)	Subject
2012-2013	MasterChef (television)	Guest judge
2015	Dancing with the Stars (television)	Contestant (season 21)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]