Nicole Camille Richie (born September 21, 1981) is an American actress, author, socialite, celebutante, singer, and television personality. The adopted daughter of soul singer Lionel Richie, she is perhaps best known for her role in the Fox reality television series The Simple Life, alongside fellow socialite and former best friend Paris Hilton.

Nicole Richie was born Nicole Camille Escovedo in Berkeley, California. In an interview with Ryan Seacrest in November 2005, Richie stated that she doesn't publicly identify her birth parents "for confidentiality reasons," and that they were friends of Lionel Richie and his wife Brenda before her birth.

At first, Lionel became her guardian. Then at age 2, Nicole went to live with Richie and his wife, Brenda Harvey, who began to raise her as their daughter. When she was three years old, Nicole began attending weekly sessions with a psychotherapist and remained in therapy throughout her childhood. She was legally adopted by the Richies when she was nine. Shortly after the adoption was formalized, Lionel's affair with another woman became public knowledge. The Richies went through a highly-publicized, bitterly acrimonious split, and as a result, indulged Nicole's every whim. "Their way of making me happy was to say yes to everything I wanted, but I don't think a little girl should have that much freedom," said Richie in an interview with Vanity Fair magazine. Lionel Richie remarried following the divorce, and through him, Nicole has two younger siblings, Myles (born 1994) and Sofia (born 1998).