Paula Hiers Deen (born in 1947) is a chef, restaurateur, writer, and TV personality who lives in Savannah, Georgia. She owns The Lady & Sons restaurant in Savannah, and runs it with her sons, Jamie and Bobby. She has also published four cookbooks. She is known for rising from the adversity of divorce and agoraphobia to become a successful businesswoman. Her bubbly, "down-home" personality makes her a favorite among TV viewers.

She was previously a homemaker and a bank teller, born in Albany, Georgia, and is a notable graduate of Albany High School. She divorced her first husband in 1989 soon after moving to Savannah and was left alone with US$200 and her teenage sons. She was a proficient Southern cook, so she parlayed that into a clandestine catering service. She would make sandwiches and other meals, and her sons would deliver them due to the fact that she suffered from agoraphobia, a fear of public places. According to Deen, her agoraphobia resulted from being held at gunpoint during a bank robbery.

The Bag Lady, as the business was named, was wildly successful and soon outgrew her kitchen. She was hired by a Best Western hotel in Savannah to cook meals, where she worked for five years before opening her own restaurant, The Lady and Sons, in Downtown Savannah. She overcame her agoraphobia by interacting with customers she previously only spoke to on the phone. Within a few years, the restaurant moved to a larger building in Savannah's Historic District.

In 1997, Paula self-published The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cooking, a cookbook filled with all her own recipes. It was very successful as well, and she has since published three more. She has appeared on QVC many times, and went on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2002.

Deen's relationship with Food Network began in 1999, when a friend introduced her to Gordon Elliott. He took her through the city doing a series of Doorknock Dinners episodes. She would also appear on Ready, Set, Cook!. She got her own show, Paula's Home Cooking, in 2003.

Paula made her film debut in Elizabethtown, starring Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst. In the movie, she plays the aunt of Bloom's character, and her cooking is showcased heavily. The film premiered on October 8, 2005. A special, Paula Goes Hollywood, premiered on Food Network in conjunction with the film's premiere.

She remarried on March 6, 2004, to Michael Groover, a tugboat pilot in the Port of Savannah.

Credit: en.wikipedia.org