Early life

Parrish was born on October 30, 1988 in Oahu, Hawaii, to Mark Parrish, who is of European descent, and Joanne, who is of Chinese descent. She attended the Moanalua Elementary and Middle Schools.

Career

Acting

Parrish first achieved fame in Hawaii as the winner of local talent contests. She got her start as a professional entertainer when she was cast as "Young Cosette" in the National Touring Company of Les Misérables, and later portrayed "Young Cosette" in the Broadway production as well; the role showcased her acting and singing abilities. She subsequently appeared in several community theater productions in Hawaii—most notably as "Scout" in Manoa Valley Theatre's revival of To Kill a Mockingbird in 1998. Parrish got her first off-stage acting job as a minor role in 1999's four-part miniseries Too Rich: The Secret Life of Doris Duke. Shortly after, she appeared in two episodes of Baywatch as a young girl named Hina.

In 2000 she was featured in Disney's made-for-TV live-action incarnation of the Pinocchio story entitled Geppetto. She then went on to appear as the character Vanessa in the short-lived sitcom The O'Keefes, as well as appearing in many Disney shows and made-for-TV movies on the Disney channel. Along with appearances on The Bernie Mac Show, Zoey 101 and The O.C.. Parrish performed in Bratz, as one of the main characters, Jade. It is her first role in a theatrical motion picture as well as her first starring role. She also landed a recurring role in the hit NBC series Heroes.

Parrish has a recurring role as Mona Vanderwaal in the hit ABC Family TV series Pretty Little Liars based on the book series by Sara Shepard. Mona is a formerly unpopular girl at Rosewood who longed to be accepted by Alison DiLaurentis's group despite being continuously mocked by her. After Alison's disappearance, Mona befriends Hanna Marin and they undergo an "extreme makeover" together. As a result, they both become popular students. However, Mona is secretly jealous of Hanna's friendship with the other Liars (Spencer, Aria and Emily) which leads her to do drastic things. In March 2012, Parrish was promoted to series regular for the third season. In August 2013, she won the "Choice TV Villain" award at the Teen Choice Awards.

Parrish returned to her theater stage roots in Over the Moon Productions' intimate presentation of the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Spring Awakening as Anna, and understudying for Lindsay Pearce, former contestant of The Glee Project, as Wendla.

Music

At the age of six, Parrish entered and won a statewide singing contest. While studying acting, Parrish continued training vocal and learned to play the piano as well as dancing. At age 14, on January 3, 2003, she appeared on the 2003 remake of Star Search, performing the song "On My Own". The judges were Naomi Judd, Ben Stein, Carol Leifer, and Jack Osbourne. Stein commented that she had a "lot of talent, but not quite up to the top rank", giving her four stars, along with Osbourne who simply called her performance "good" and also gave her four stars. Leifer remarked that she had a "great Broadway voice" giving her three stars. Finally, Judd was the least generous, stating "You have a future in musicals, but you have some work to do. You've got some practicing to do" and giving her two stars. Parrish was eliminated after this performance in favor of competitor Tiffany Evans who received a perfect five stars from all four judges. Parrish began writing her own music and eventually becoming the lead singer of a three piece girl group, Impulse.

In 2007, Parrish was signed to Geffen Records to produce her first album. Her first single, "Rainy Day", one that she has written, along with its music video, was released on July 7, 2007, and was also featured on the Bratz Motion Picture Soundtrack. She also makes a brief appearance in Prima J's "Rockstar" music video, which is also on the soundtrack. She also made an appearance in NLT's "She Said, I Said" music video. She provided background vocals for the song. She made her music debut in the Bratz: The Movie credits, with her electropop song "Rainy Day".

Other ventures

On September 4, 2014, Parrish was announced as one of the celebrities who will compete on the 19th season of Dancing with the Stars. She was paired with professional dancer Valentin Chmerkovskiy. During week three "Movie Night", the couple became the first couple to earn a perfect score with their Jazz dance and also hold the record for earliest perfect score on the show (the record was later matched by Bethany Mota and her partner Derek Hough on the same night). Parrish and Chmerkovskiy reached the finals of the show but ended up in third place, behind Sadie Robertson and Alfonso Ribeiro who took second and first place, respectively.

Dancing with the Stars performances

Week #	Dance/song	Judges' score				Result
		Inaba	Goodman	Hough	Tonioli
1	Jive — "Bang Bang"	7	7	7	8	Safe
2	Foxtrot — "Call Me Maybe"	9	8	8	9	Safe
3	Jazz — "America"	10	101	10	10	Safe
4	Rumba — "How Will I Know"	9	92	9	9	Safe
53	Burlesque — "Mamma Knows Best"	8	84	8	9	No Elimination
6	Samba — "La Vida Es Un Carnaval"	8	75	9	9	Last to be called safe
7	Viennese Waltz — “Secret” Team Freestyle — "Black Widow"	8 9	7 9	8 9	8 9	Safe
8	Contemporary — "Everybody's Free (To Feel Good)"	10	10	10	10	Safe (Immunity)
9	Quickstep — "Hey Boy! Hey Girl!" Trio Salsa6 — "Morning Drums"	9 10	10 9	10 10	9 10	Safe
10	Paso doble — "Blame" Argentine Tango — "Blame" (acoustic version)	10 9	10 9	10 10	10 10	Safe
11 (Night One)	Samba — "La Vida Es Un Carnaval" Freestyle — "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)"	9 10	10 10	9 10	9 10	Bottom Two
11 (Night Two)	Foxtrot/Paso doble — "Hideaway"	10	10	10	10	Third Place

Filmography

Movie

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2007	Bratz: The Movie	Jade	Co-lead role
2009	Fired Up!	Lana
	April Showers	Vicki
2010	Triple Dog	Cecily Gerber	Direct-to-DVD
2011	One Kine Day	Leilani
	4 Wedding Planners	Hoku
2012	Celeste and Jesse Forever	Savannah
2013	To Those Nights	Audrey	Short film
	Something Wicked	Ronnie	Short film
2015	The Concerto	Lisa Wagner

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1999	Baywatch	Hina	2 episodes
	Too Rich: The Secret Life of Doris Duke	Uncredited	TV Movie
2000	Geppetto	Featured	TV Movie
2003	The O'Keefes	Vanessa	Episode: "Party"
2004	The Bernie Mac Show	Laura	Episode: "Being Bernie Mac"
2006	Zoey 101	Sara	Episode: "The Silver Hammer Society"
	The O.C.	Leah	Episode: "The Summer Bummer"
2007-08	Heroes	May	4 episodes
2009	True Jackson, VP	Kyla	Episode: "Flirting with Fame"
2010-present	Pretty Little Liars	Mona Vanderwaal	Recurring role (season 1-2); Main role (seasons 3-present); 75 episodes
2011	Hawaii Five-0	Rebecca Fine	Episode: "Kapu"
2014	Drop Dead Diva	Chelsea Jones	Episode: "Cheers & Jeers"
	Dancing with the Stars	Herself	Contestant on Season 19, Third Place
	High School Possession	Lauren Brady	TV Movie
2015	The Mysteries of Laura	Jillian Havenmeyer	Episode: "The Mystery of the Crooked Clubber"

Soundtrack

Year	Film	Song	Notes
2007	Bratz: The Movie	Rainy Day	Writer/Performer
2008	Guiding Light	Won't Let You Go	Writer/Performer; uncredited
2009	April Showers	I Won't Cry	Performer
	The Kings of Appletown	I'm Changing	Performer
2010	Triple Dog	Rush	Performer
2014	Pretty Little Liars	Gravity by Sara Bareilles	Cover
2015	The Concerto	Heart Made Of Stone	Performer
	The Concerto	Senseless	Performer

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Title	Outcome
2008	Golden Raspberry Award	Worst Actress	Bratz	Nominated
2012	Teen Choice Awards	Choice TV Villain	Pretty Little Liars	Won
2013	Teen Choice Awards	Choice TV Villain		Won
2013	TV Guide Awards	Favorite Villain		Nominated
2014	Teen Choice Awards	Choice TV Villain		Nominated

[ Source: Wikipedia ]