Randolph Severn "Trey" Parker III (born October 19, 1969) is an American actor, animator, filmmaker, and songwriter.
Born in Conifer, Colorado, Parker studied film and Japanese at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he met his creative partner Matt Stone. As students, they made the independent film Cannibal! The Musical (1993). They found fame with the animated satire South Park (since 1997) and the feature South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999). Their satirical action film Team America: World Police (2004) stars a cast of marionettes. With Robert Lopez, they cowrote the musical The Book of Mormon, which premiered on Broadway to positive reviews.
Parker has received five Primetime Emmy Awards and a Peabody for South Park, four Tony Awards and a Grammy Award for The Book of Mormon and an Academy Award nomination for the song "Blame Canada" from South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, co-written with Marc Shaiman. In 2026, he was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame.
Randolph Severn Parker III was born in Conifer, Colorado, the son of insurance saleswoman Sharon and geologist Randolph "Randy" Parker II. His nickname "Trey" refers to him being the third generation of his family to be named Randolph Parker. He was a shy child who took honors classes. He idolized Monty Python, and his later ventures into animation were influenced by Terry Gilliam. He was inspired to write funny songs after seeing This Is Spinal Tap (1984). He played piano, and early influences included country music and Elton John.
Parker has described himself as "the typical big-dream kid." He made short films with a group which included his future collaborator Eric Stough. He developed a love for musical theatre and joined the Evergreen Players, a community theater company. He sang in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and Flower Drum Song and designed sets for Little Shop of Horrors. At 17, he wrote and recorded a comedy album, Immature: A Collection of Love Ballads For The '80's Man, with friend David Goodman. He was president of the Evergreen High School choir counsel and played Danny Zuko in the Evergreen production of Grease.
After graduating high school in 1988, Parker spent a semester at Berklee College of Music before transferring to the University of Colorado Boulder, where he majored in film and Japanese. He took a film class where he met Matt Stone—a math major from the nearby town of Littleton—and the two immediately bonded over anti-authoritarian ethos and Monty Python. Parker made Giant Beavers of Southern Sri Lanka (1989), a Godzilla parody with beavers; fellow student Jason McHugh recalled that the idea nearly got him laughed out of class.
Parker and Stone wrote and acted in many short films together, among them First Date, Man on Mars and Job Application. Parker recalled that he and Stone shot a film nearly every week, but he has lost most of them. Parker used cutout animation on American History (1992), a short made for his animation class. It caused an unexpected sensation, earning Parker a Student Academy Award. At CU, the duo studied with experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage, whom they cast in their first feature film.
The Spirit of Christmas and Cannibal! The Musical (1992–1994)
In 1992, Parker, Stone, McHugh and Ian Hardin founded a production company, Avenging Conscience, named after a film which all four hated. Parker employed cutout animation on Avenging Conscience's first film, The Spirit of Christmas (1992, referred to as Jesus vs. Frosty), a short pitting the religious figure against Frosty the Snowman. Observing the showdown are four foulmouthed friends who would feature in his later work.
The quartet created a three-minute trailer for the fictional film Alferd Packer: The Musical. Parker had long been fascinated by Alferd Packer, a nineteenth-century Colorado prospector accused of cannibalism. Parker's relationship with his fiancée fell apart and, "horribly depressed", he funneled his frustrations into the project, naming Packer's "beloved but disloyal" horse after her. The trailer became a sensation among students, leading Virgil Grillo, the chairman and founder of the university's film department, to convince the quartet to expand it to a feature film. The group raised $125,000 from family and friends. Parker, under the alias Juan Schwartz, co-produced, directed and starred, creating an Oklahoma!-style musical with ten original show tunes. Parker needed a three-syllable word and coined shpadoinkle as a placeholder. It became is a running gag in the film. It was shot in Loveland Pass as winter was ending, and the crew endured freezing weather. Filming locations included the Lake City, Colorado courthouse where Packer was tried.
Alferd Packer: The Musical premiered in Boulder, Colorado on October 31, 1993. The group submitted it to the Sundance Film Festival, which did not respond. Parker told McHugh he had a "vision" they needed to be at the festival, so they rented a conference room in a nearby hotel and put on their own screenings. MTV did a short segment on The Big Picture regarding the film, and they made industry connections through the festival.The film was sold to Troma Entertainment in 1996, and was retitled Cannibal! The Musical. Upon the duo's later success, it became their biggest-selling title. It has become a cult classic and adapted as a stage play by community theater groups and even high schools nationwide. Lloyd Kaufman submitted the film to Comedy Central, which replied: "Thank you for submitting and resubmitting Cannibal! The Musical, but it is simply not up to our standards for broadcasting." Today, the letter is displayed in Parker's office at Comedy Central.
Your Studio and You and Orgazmo (1995–1997)
Following Cannibal!, the group, sans Hardin, moved to Los Angeles. Upon arrival, they met a lawyer for the William Morris Agency who connected them with producer Scott Rudin. As a result, they acquired a lawyer, an agent and a script deal. Despite believing themselves to be on the verge of success, the duo struggled for several years. Cannibal! got the attention of producer Pam Brady. They unsuccessfully pitched Time Warped', which would have involved fictionalized stories of historical figures, to Fox Kids. The first pilot, "Rom and Jul", involved romance between Australopithecus and Homo erectus. The trio created two separate pilots but, despite Brady's approval, the network disbanded Fox Kids.
David Zucker, a fan of Cannibal!, asked the duo for a 15-minute film for a party celebrating Seagram's acquisition of Universal Pictures. Zucker told Parker, "The script is really funny. You'll have a blast." Parker found there was no script. Zucker explained, "Oh, no. I meant the script I know you're going to write is going to be really funny." The duo improvised much of it an hour before it was shot. Your Studio and You is a spoof of 1950s educational films starring Sylvester Stallone, Demi Moore, Steven Spielberg and others. Parker recalled "You could probably make a feature film out of the experience of making that movie because it was just two dudes from college suddenly directing Steven Spielberg."
Between shooting the pilots for Time Warped, Parker penned Orgazmo, about a Mormon missionary moonlighting as a porn star. When it later entered production, half of the budget came from Kuki, a Japanese porn company which wanted to feature its performers in mainstream Western media. Independent distributor October Films purchased the rights for one million dollars after its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film received an NC-17 rating from the Motion Picture Association of America, which resulted in poor box office performance. Parker and Stone attempted to negotiate with the organization on what to delete from the final print, but the MPAA would not give specific notes. The duo later theorized that the organization cared less because it was an independent distributor which would bring it significantly less money.