Vanessa Chantal Paradis (born 22 December 1972) is a French singer, model and actress. Paradis became a star at the age of 14 thanks to the international success of her single "Joe le taxi" (1987). At 18 she was awarded France's highest honors as a singer and actress: the Romy Schneider Award and the César for Most Promising Actress for Jean-Claude Brisseau's film Noce blanche, as well as the Victoires de la Musique award for best female vocalist for the album Variations sur le même t'aime. Among her most notable films are also Élisa (1995) with Gérard Depardieu, Witch Way Love (1997) with Jean Reno, Half a Chance (1998) with Jean-Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon, The Girl on the Bridge (1999), Heartbreaker (2010) and Café de Flore (2011). Her tribute to Jeanne Moreau at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, during which they sang "Le Tourbillon" as a duet, became a notable phenomenon in French popular culture. In 2022 she was nominated for a Molière Award for Best Actress for her performance in the play "Maman".

She was the muse of many musicians and singer-songwriters, each of whom took one of her albums under their wing, including Étienne Roda-Gil (1988), Serge Gainsbourg (1990), Lenny Kravitz (1992), Matthieu Chedid (2007), Benjamin Biolay (2013), Samuel Benchetrit and The Bees (2018). As a model, Paradis has appeared on more than 300 magazine covers around the world, including Vogue, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, Madame Figaro, Paris Match, Vanity Fair, Glamour, Premiere and Marie Claire. Since 1991 she has been the face of Chanel, chosen by Karl Lagerfeld, beginning with the "birdcage" advertisement "L'Esprit de Chanel" directed by Jean-Paul Goude. In 2011 Paradis was made an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters, and in 2015 a Knight of the National Order of the Legion of Honour.

Paradis was born in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, a suburb of Paris, to interior designers André and Corinne Paradis. As a child she took dance lessons, learned the basics of the piano and attended castings for child models. At the age of seven, Paradis appeared on the local television program L'École des fans, a talent show for child singers.

Paradis recorded her first single "La Magie des surprises-parties" in 1983 and performed it at an Italian festival in 1985. Although it was not a hit, it paved the way for the song that made her world-famous, "Joe le taxi", written by Franck Langolff in 1987, when she was 14. It was number one in France for 11 weeks and, unusually for a song in French, was released in the UK, where it reached number three. It was taken from her first album M&J (for Marilyn and John), which reached number 13 in France but did not enter the UK chart.