Paul was born in New York City to art dealer Robert Fridenberg and his wife, Mariam Barnett.
He grew up in Manhattan near his extended family of German extraction; as a boy, he accidentally shot a nurse who was attending to his mother in their home while playing with his uncle's gun.
[1] He married England-born actress Molly O'Sullivan in the early 1920s; the pair had one son, Paul Powers Perez.
[4][5][6] By the late 1920s, the family had moved to Los Angeles; by 1926, Perez was employed at Universal as a scenarist, where he was known for writing titles.
He reportedly traveled extensively through southern Mexico, where her purchased masks and other artifacts at local markets.