Paula Marshall (b. 12 June 1964) is a well-known American actress, who has an unfortunate reputation for having her television series' be cancelled in their first season.

A native of Maryland, she graduated from Robert E. Peary High School in Rockville, Maryland in 1982 where she pursued her love of photography.

It wasn't until 1992 that Marshall gained audience attention when she had a three episode guest role on The Wonder Years, and guest starred on other shows such as Seinfeld, Nash Bridges and Diagnosis Murder. In 1994 she got her first sitcom role on Wild Oats , which was cancelled in its first season. After a few years in B-movies, Marshall gained a second series with 1997's Chicago Sons which fared no better. 1997 wasn't a bad year for Marshall though, as she had a recurring role on Spin City, and starred alongside Bette Midler and Dennis Farina in the film That Old Feeling .

In 1998, Marshall's third television series - Rob Thomas's Cupid premiered. The series featured Marshall as Dr. Claire Allen, a psychiatrist who is given charge of a man named Trevor (Jeremy Piven) who thinks he is Cupid sent down from Mt. Olympus by Zeus to connect 100 couples without his powers, as a punishment. The series gained a small but dedicated fanbase, but found itself in a bad timeslot and was cancelled. Before the year was out, however, Marshall had joined Gina Gershon and her That Old Feeling co-star Danny Nucci on David E Kelley 's Snoops about a less-than-conventional detective agency. Within its first season, it was also cancelled.

In 2000, Marshall returned to television screens: first with a three-episode guest arc as a porn star and love interest for Jeremy (Joshua Malina) on Aaron Sorkin's Sports Night, and then in her fifth TV series Cursed (a.k.a The Weber Show ). After its first season, Cursed was also cancelled and Marshall remained off camera until 2002, when she guest starred on Just Shoot Me as the daughter of Nina (Wendie Malick). Before the year was out, Just Shoot Me had been cancelled and Marshall had her sixth series: Hidden Hills .

Hidden Hills was an offbeat comedy about three families in suburbia and was a mild success but was not renewed for a second season. Marshall resurfaced in a secondary role in the Steve Martin-Bonnie Hunt remake of Cheaper by the Dozen and had a cameo appearance in Break a Leg , a film starring Jennifer Beals and Danny Nucci, who by now was dating Marshall. On October 12 2003, the two were married.

In 2004, Marshall guest starred on an episode of Alicia Silverstone's Miss Match, but the series was cancelled before her episode aired. In October, she had a three-episode role on freshman series Veronica Mars, which was created by Cupid's Rob Thomas. Veronica Mars is now struggling to be renewed for a second seaosn.

Marshall signed on for what would be her seventh series, Cooking Lessons, in 2004. The series, starring Elizabeth Lackey as a food critic, still has not been given a premiere date.