Parker was born on October 7, 1970, in Baltimore, Maryland.[1] She is the only child of her divorced parents, health care professional Susan Parker and dentist Donald Parker.[2] After briefly attending a Montessori school, Parker entered Roland Park Country School, where she stayed through high school.[3] At the age of 17, she won Best Actress in the state of Maryland's high school theater competition. She became a member of The Washington Ballet Company before earning an acting degree in 1993 from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.[4]
Career
Parker at a performance of The Hot Chocolate Nutcracker in December 2010
On television, Parker starred on the short-lived UPN sitcom, Second Time Around from 2004 to 2005. In 2010, she returned to television with starring role in the ABC legal drama, The Deep End, the series was cancelled after one season. In 2012. she made her Broadway debut playing the role of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire.[8] In 2013, Parker was lead actress in the NBC drama pilot Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives, and later had a recurring role on Revolution. In 2014, she starred as a series regular in the first season of the TNT crime drama Murder in the First, opposite Taye Diggs and Kathleen Robertson.[9] In 2016, she appeared alongside Kimberly Elise and Mo'Nique in the comedy-drama film Almost Christmas. In 2017, she starred in another short-lived drama series, Time After Time.
In 2017, Parker joined the cast of Fox prime time soap opera, Empire, playing Giselle Barker in a recurring role during the fourth season. She was promoted to a series regular for the fifth season, starring to series finale in 2020.[10][11] For the 2020-21 television season, Parker had a recurring role on the NBC series, Chicago P.D, and in late 2021 began starring in the HBO Max comedy-drama series, And Just Like That... playing the role of Lisa Todd Wexley.[12] In 2022, she also appeared in the Peacock miniseries The Best Man: The Final Chapters.[13]
Personal life
Parker is an active member of the Democratic Party.[14] She eloped with actor Joseph Falasca in March 2001. Their marriage, which lasted several months, ended in divorce later that year.[15] Parker married her Soul Food co-star Boris Kodjoe in Gundelfingen, Germany, on May 21, 2005. She gave birth to their first child, Sophie, on March 5, 2005. Sophie has spina bifida, which was diagnosed at birth.[16] Parker gave birth to their son Nicolas in October 2006 in Atlanta, Georgia. The family attends the Cascade United Methodist Church when in Atlanta.[17]