Nicole Ari Parker


Nicole Ari Parker is an American actress and model. She made her screen debut with a leading role in the critically acclaimed independent film The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love and went on to appear in Boogie Nights, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.
Parker has starred in a number of movies, including Blue Streak, Remember the Titans, Brown Sugar, Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins, Black Dynamite, and Almost Christmas. On television, Parker played the leading role of attorney Teri Joseph in the Showtime drama series Soul Food, for which she received five NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series nominations. She also starred in the short-lived UPN romantic comedy Second Time Around and the ABC drama Time After Time. In 2017, she joined the cast of Fox's prime-time soap opera Empire playing Giselle Barker.

Early years

Parker was born in Baltimore, Maryland. She is the only child of her divorced parents, health care professional Susan Parker and dentist Donald Parker. After briefly attending a Montessori school, Parker entered Roland Park Country School, where she stayed through high school. 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.

Career

Early in her career she appeared in several critically acclaimed independent films, including The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love, Boogie Nights, 200 Cigarettes, and the 1999 Sundance Film Festival winner The Adventures of Sebastian Cole. She starred with her husband, model and actor Boris Kodjoe, in UPN's situation comedy Second Time Around.
After a string of odd jobs, bit roles, and low-wage theater work, Parker was offered her breakthrough role on Soul Food. In several episodes of the series, she was able to show her singing abilities, which also served her well in roles as singers on an episode of ' and in the movie Divas.
Parker also had a lead role in the 1998 film '. She worked alongside Martin Lawrence in two of his films: Blue Streak and Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins. On Broadway she played Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire.
Parker was lead actress in the 2013 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.
In 2017, she joined the popular and award-winning Fox series Empire, playing Giselle Barker in a recurring role during the fourth season. She has been promoted to a series regular for the fifth season.

Personal life

Parker eloped with actor Joseph Falasca in March 2001. Their marriage lasted only eight months; they divorced later that year. She married her Soul Food co-star Boris Kodjoe on May 21, 2005, in Gundelfingen, Germany. She gave birth to their first child, a girl, on March 5, 2005. Sophie has spina bifida, which was diagnosed at birth. Parker gave birth to the couple's second child, a son, in October 2006 in Atlanta, Georgia.
The family attends the Cascade United Methodist Church when in Atlanta.
Parker is an active member of the Democratic Party.

Filmography

Film

Television

Accolades