Emily in Paris

• Lily Collins as Emily Cooper, a 20-something American who moves from Chicago to Paris for a social media strategy job at Savoir.
• Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu as Sylvie, Emily's tough French boss at Savoir in Paris
• Ashley Park as Mindy Chen, a nanny and Emily's first friend in Paris
• Lucas Bravo as Gabriel, Emily's attractive downstairs neighbor, who is a chef and Emily's love interest
• Samuel Arnold as Julien, Emily's co-worker, trendy and high drama, he plays a funny duo with Luc
• Bruno Gouery as Luc, Emily's quirky other co-worker, he plays a humorous duo with Julien
• Camille Razat as Camille, Emily's new friend and Gabriel's girlfriend

• Kate Walsh as Madeline Wheeler, Emily's American boss in Chicago who cannot take the job in Paris after learning that she is pregnant
• William Abadie as Antoine Lambert, Emily's client who owns a perfume company called Maison Lavaux and is having an affair with Sylvie
• Arnaud Viard as Paul Brossard, the owner of Savoir

• Roe Hartrampf as Doug, Emily's boyfriend in Chicago.
• Charley Fouquet as Catherine Lambert, Antoine's wife
• Eion Bailey as Randy Zimmer a well-known hotel owner
• Jean-Christophe Bouvet as Pierre Cadault, a famous flamboyant French designer and uncle of Mathieu
• Charles Martins as Mathieu Cadault, business man who becomes a love interest of Emily
• Aleksandra Yermak as Klara, representative of Hästens, a Swedish luxury bed maker
• Julien Floreancig as Thomas, a French snob, philosophy professor
• Carlson Young as Brooklyn Clark, a young and famous American actress
• Elizabeth Tan as Li, Mindy's best friend who has brought her five bridesmaids to Paris to shop for her bride's dress
• Victor Meutelet as Timothée, the younger brother of Camille
• Camille Japy as Louise, Camille's mother
• Christophe Guybet as Gerard, Camille's father
• David Prat as Théo, Camille's other brother
• Faith Prince as Judith Robertson, a member of The American Friends of the Louvre
• Claude Perron as Patricia
• Isaiah Hodges as one of the two Grey Space designers
• Christophe Tek as one of the two Grey Space designers

On September 5, 2018, it was announced that Paramount Network had given the production a series order for a first season consisting of 10 episodes. The series was created by Darren Star, who was also expected to serve as an executive producer alongside Tony Hernandez. Production companies involved with the series were slated to consist of Jax Media.[5][6][7][8] On July 13, 2020, it was reported that the series would move from Paramount Network to Netflix.[9] On November 11, 2020, Netflix renewed the series for a second season.[4]

On April 3, 2019, Lily Collins was cast in the titular role.[10] On August 13, 2019, Ashley Park had joined the main cast.[11] On September 19, 2019, Philippine Leroy Beaulieu, Lucas Bravo, Samuel Arnold, Camille Razat, and Bruno Gouery joined cast in starring roles, while Kate Walsh, William Abadie, and Arnaud Viard were cast in recurring roles.[12]

Principal photography for the series was expected to begin in early 2019 in Paris and its suburbs, but began in August 2019.

Bakery across the street

Many scenes are filmed at Place de l'Estrapade in the 5th Arrondissement. It's the original site of Emily's apartment, the restaurant ("Les Deux Compères"), and the bakery.[13] Some scenes are also filmed at Cité du Cinéma, a film studio complex in Saint-Denis.[5][11] An episode was also filmed at the Château de Sonnay in the department of Indre-et-Loire.[14] Additional photography took place in Chicago during November 2019.[15]

Darren Star has done it yet again: centered an entire show on a thin, gently delusional white woman whimsically exploring a major metropolitan area in wildly expensive couture purchased on a mid-level salary.

— Rachel Handler, Vulture.[16]

Daniel D'Addario of Variety described the series as "a delight that poses the question of what it really means to grow up, against a truly inviting backdrop", and that Collins is "an inherently winsome performer who has never been quite as well used as she is here".[17] Kristen Baldwin of Entertainment Weekly gave the series a "B" and wrote, "If you need a five-hour brain vacation, Paris is a worthwhile destination."[18] The New Zealand Herald considered the show "visually delectable" and that "Collins has a pixie-ish charm which makes her endearing", but also that the show is "as ephemeral as fairy floss [cotton candy]".[19] However, Kristen Lopez of IndieWire wrote a review MetaCritic graded as a 23 out of a 100, praising Collins for being a "jewel, make no mistake" and that "Emily in Paris is only as watchable and frivolous as its leading lady," but warning viewers "Emily in Paris is like scrolling through Instagram. It’s a great way to waste time looking at pretty pictures with no depth."[20]

Nevertheless, not all critics were kind to the Emily character. Emma Gray from Huffpost called Emily a bland character, stating "The show doesn’t even make an effort to quirk her up or give her a more relatable, girl-next-door roughness: she’s always immaculately coiffed and made-up, and garbed in effortfully eye-catching outfits. But there’s not much to the character, except for enormous amounts of self-confidence and the inexplicable ability to attract new friends and love interests on every street corner." [21] Rebecca Nicholson of The Guardian gave the series one out of five stars: "if it is an attempt to fluff up the romcom for the streaming age, then it falls over on its six-inch heels."[22]

Some critics appeared ambivalent, such as Jo Ellison writing for the Financial Times. On one hand she expresses admiration for the way Darren Star manages to depict "a version of womanhood in which promiscuity, bossiness and shopaholicism are depicted as qualities to be celebrated"; on the other "the major plot lines might have been written in the 1940s and the Frenchies are routinely cast as vain, preening and parochial." She concludes "Cliché-ridden and completely outdated: Darren Star's 'Sex and the Cité' will no doubt be monstrously successful."[23]

Many French critics condemned the show for negatively stereotyping Parisians and the French.[24] Charles Martin wrote in Première that the show unfairly stereotyped and depicted the French as "lazy and never arrive at the office before the end of the morning, that they are flirtatious and not really attached to the concept of loyalty, that they are sexist and backward, and [...] have a questionable relationship with showering".[25][26][27][28][29]

For the series, review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 63% based on 55 reviews, with an average rating of 5.81/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Though its depiction of France is tré cliché [sic], Emily in Paris is rom-com fantasy at its finest, spectacularly dressed and filled with charming performances."[30] Metacritic gave the series a weighted average score of 60 out of 100 based on 17 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[31]

For the week of October 5, 2020, Emily in Paris reached the top ten list of most watched streaming shows per Nielsen.