Sarah Paulson's first TV appearance was on Law & Order in 1994, per IMDb, which she would follow up with the television movie Friends at Last. In 1999, she would land a part in the WB series Jack & Jill, which was good for her career but also where she met Amanda Peet, her best friend. For Paulson, TV was not merely a stepping stone. Indeed, even as she booked roles in feature films, including 2000's What Women Want, 2013's 12 Years a Slave, and 2019's The Goldfinch, Paulson never forgot her TV roots, and in fact, her star truly rose in 2011 with her first appearance in American Horror Story.

She played a medium named Billie Dean Howard in AHS: Murder House, and from there, Paulson would remain a fixture in the AHS repertory cast, taking on nine different roles through 2020, including headmistress Cordelia Foxx in AHS: Coven/Apocalypse and as journalist Lana Winters in AHS: Asylum/Roanoke (via Gold Derby). Paulson is also a major player in American Crime Story, of course, FX's true-crime anthology series, for which she is most notably known for portraying Marcia Clark in 2016's The People vs. O.J. Simpson. For her work, Paulson would go on to win an Emmy and Golden Globe (via Variety), more than two decades after making her small-screen debut.

Paulson's perseverance — that "effortlessly tough" quality Aaron Sorkin spoke of — is what has continued to land with her role after role (such as Nurse Ratched in Netflix's Ratched), along with the paychecks that come with them. Sarah Paulson once quipped to Variety of her history of short-lived series, "I never was on a show that lasted more than a year"; and yet, Paulson's constant workload, her accolades, and $12 million net worth prove that any such career obstacles could not ultimately stand in the way of her success.