Mary-Louise Parker (born August 2, 1964) is an American actress. She is known for her roles on stage and screen and has received various accolades including two Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award and two Tony Awards.
Parker made her film debut in Signs of Life (1989) and came to prominence for film roles in Grand Canyon (1991), Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), The Client (1994), Bullets Over Broadway (1994), A Place for Annie (1994), Boys on the Side (1995), The Portrait of a Lady (1996), and The Maker (1997). Her later film appearances included roles in The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008), Red (2010), R.I.P.D. (2013), and Red 2 (2013).
On television, she portrayed Harper Pitt in the acclaimed HBO television miniseries Angels in America (2003) for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie. She was Emmy-nominated for her roles as Amy Gardner in the NBC series The West Wing (2001–2006), Nancy Botwin in the Showtime series Weeds (2005–2012), and Zenia in the television film The Robber Bride (2007). She took a recurring role in the NBC series The Blacklist (2014) and played Roma Guy in the miniseries When We Rise (2017).
On stage, Parker has earned two Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Play for her roles in David Auburn's Proof (2001) and Adam Rapp's The Sound Inside (2020). She was Tony-nominated for her roles in Prelude to a Kiss (1990), Reckless (2005), and How I Learned to Drive (2022). As a writer, Parker has contributed articles to Esquire magazine since 2007. She published her memoir, Dear Mr. You, in 2015.
Parker was born in Columbia, South Carolina, the youngest of four children, to Caroline Louise (née Morell) and John Morgan Parker, a judge who served in the U.S. Army. Because of her father's career, Parker spent parts of her childhood in South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas, as well as in Thailand, Germany, and France. She described her childhood as "profoundly unhappy", noting that, "My parents did everything they could; I had books, clothes, a home and a warm bed, but I was never happy." She graduated from Marcos de Niza High School in Tempe, Arizona. Parker majored in drama at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and graduated in 1986.
1988–1999: Early roles and Broadway debut
Parker got her start in acting with a role on the soap opera Ryan's Hope. In the late 1980s, Parker moved to New York City. After a few minor roles, she made her Broadway debut in a production of Craig Lucas' Prelude to a Kiss, playing the lead role of Rita, in 1990. She moved with the production when it transferred from its origin off-Broadway. Parker won the Clarence Derwent Award for her performance and was nominated for a Tony Award (although she did not play the role when the film was made). In 1989, she was in the film Longtime Companion, a film starring Campbell Scott, Bruce Davison and Dermot Mulroney about the emergence and devastation of the AIDS epidemic.
Parker starred with Kevin Kline in Grand Canyon (1991); with Kathy Bates, Mary Stuart Masterson, and Jessica Tandy in Fried Green Tomatoes (1991); with Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones in The Client (1994); with John Cusack in Bullets Over Broadway (1994); and with Drew Barrymore and Whoopi Goldberg in Boys on the Side (1995), as a woman with AIDS. Parker's next role was in a movie adaptation of another Craig Lucas play, Reckless (1995), alongside Mia Farrow, followed by Jane Campion's The Portrait of a Lady (1996), which also starred Nicole Kidman, Viggo Mortensen, Christian Bale, John Malkovich and Barbara Hershey. In addition she appeared alongside Matthew Modine in Tim Hunter's The Maker (1997).
Parker's theater career continued when she appeared off-Broadway in Paula Vogel's 1997 critical smash How I Learned to Drive, with David Morse. She received the 1997 Lucille Lortel Award, Outstanding Actress, and 1997 Obie Award, Performance for her performance.
In the late 1990s, she appeared in several independent films, including Let the Devil Wear Black and The Five Senses. She starred alongside Sidney Poitier in the 1999 movie The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn.
2000–2012: Acclaim with Proof and Weeds
From 2000 to 2001, Parker starred in the play Proof in off-Broadway and Broadway productions, winning the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for the Broadway run.
In 2003, HBO aired the six-and-a-half-hour adaptation of Tony Kushner's acclaimed Broadway play Angels in America, directed by Mike Nichols. Parker played Harper Pitt, the Mormon, Valium-addicted wife of a closeted lawyer. For her performance, Parker won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.
In 2004, Parker appeared in the comedy Saved! and the television film Miracle Run, based on the true story of a mother of two sons with autism, as well as appearing in the lead role in Craig Lucas' Reckless on Broadway. The production, directed by Mark Brokaw, earned Parker another Tony Award nomination in 2005. In November 2005, Parker was the subject of a career exhibition at Boston University, where memorabilia from her career were donated to the university's library.
In 2005, Parker began starring on the Showtime series Weeds. She played Nancy Botwin, a widowed mother of two boys who begins selling marijuana to support her family. In 2006, Parker won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy for her lead role in Weeds. In that category, she defeated the four leads of Desperate Housewives. She dedicated the award to the late John Spencer, known for his work as Leo McGarry on The West Wing. After receiving the award, Parker stated: "I'm really in favor of legalizing marijuana. I don't think it's that controversial."
In 2007, Parker played the lead role in the television film The Robber Bride, and portrayed Zerelda Mimms in the Andrew Dominik film The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Parker appeared alongside Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Sam Rockwell, and Garret Dillahunt.
Parker appeared in 2008's The Spiderwick Chronicles and in off-Broadway's Playwrights Horizons production in the New York premiere of Dead Man's Cell Phone, a new play by Sarah Ruhl, alongside Drama Desk Award-winner Kathleen Chalfant.
Following this, she returned to work on the fifth season of Weeds. Parker took the lead role in the Roundabout Theatre revival of the play Hedda Gabler, running at the American Airlines Theatre in 2009, totaling 74 performances. The play garnered a series of negative reviews.