Nicole Ari Parker

Nicole Ari Parker

Active - 1995 - 2022  |   Born - Oct 7, 1970 in Baltimore, Maryland, United States  |   Genres - Drama, Music, Family & Personal Relationships

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Biography by AllMovie

A graduate of the Tisch School for the Performing Arts as well as a published poet, Nicole Ari Parker began acting in small-stage productions in Harlem before landing her film debut in The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love (1995). She would go on to appear in other independent features, such as The End of Violence, Boogie Nights, and 200 Cigarettes. She also began working in television, starring in a Rosie Perez-produced episode of Subway Stories and getting a reoccurring role on The Cosby Show. In 2001, she gained two NAACP Image award nominations: one for her work in the feature film Remember the Titans, and the other for her role as the lawyer Teri on the Showtime original series Soul Food. Parker would go on to play another lawyer a year later in the romantic comedy Brown Sugar, with Taye Diggs. In the years to come, Parker would find ongoing success with movies like Black Dynamite and Pastor Brown and tje TV series The Deep End.

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Factsheet

  • Ancestry is African American and Cherokee Indian.
  • Won a best-actress award in a statewide Maryland high-school competition.
  • Got her break starring in the Showtime series Soul Food (2000-04).
  • Starred in 2004 with her husband, Boris Kodjoe (whom she met while working on Soul Food), in the UPN sitcom Second Time Around.
  • Had singing parts in Soul Food and in a guest appearance on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
  • Is a published poet.
  • Because their daughter Sophie has spina bifida, she and Kodjoe founded Sophie's Voice Foundation to provide information and support to others dealing with the condition.