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 the 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 competition and then moved to The Washington Ballet Company before applying to the New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She graduated with an acting degree in 1993.

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 (including scooping ice cream), bit roles, and low wage work in the theater circuit, Parker was offered her breakthrough role on Soul Food. In Soul Food, she showcased her singing voice in several episodes. Parker also had a guest appearance on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, playing a singer. She played the role of Stephanie in the movie Divas alongside Khalil Kain. She also had a lead role in the 1998 film Exiled: A Law & Order Movie. She worked alongside Martin Lawrence in two of his films: Blue Streak and Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins. Parker also opened on Broadway in the play A Streetcar Named Desire, in the role of Blanche DuBois.

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 stars as a series regular in the TNT crime drama Murder in the First, opposite Taye Diggs and Kathleen Robertson.

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, Sophie Tei-Naaki Lee Kodjoe, on March 5, 2005. Sophie has spina bifida, which was diagnosed at birth. Parker gave birth to the couple's second child, Nicolas Neruda Kodjoe, a boy, on October 31, 2006 in Atlanta, Georgia. The family attends the Cascade United Methodist Church when in Atlanta. They currently reside in Los Angeles, CA.

Parker is an active member of the Democratic Party.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1993	Other Women's Children	Marcelle
1995	Stonewall	Female Draft Officer
1995	The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love	Evie Roy
1995	Divas	Stephanie
1996	Rebound: The Legend of Earl "The Goat" Manigault	Wanda
1997	The End of Violence	Ade
1997	Subway Stories	Sharon	Segment "Honey-Getter"
1997	Boogie Nights	Becky Barnett
1998	Spark	Nina
1998	The Adventures of Sebastian Cole	Jenny
1998	Exiled	Georgeanne Taylor
1999	200 Cigarettes	Bridget
1999	Mute Love	Mavis
1999	Mind Prey	Weather Karkinnon
1999	Mirar Mirror	Denise Scott
1999	Loving Jezebel	Frances
1999	Harlem Aria	Clarisse
1999	A Map of the World	Sherry
1999	Blue Streak	Melissa Green
2000	The Loretta Claiborne Story	Christine Claiborne
2000	Dancing in September	Tomasina 'Tommy' Crawford
2000	Remember the Titans	Carol Boone
2002	Brown Sugar	Reese Marie Wiggam Ellis
2005	King's Ransom	Angela Drake
2008	Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins	Lucinda Allen
2009	Black Dynamite	Mahogany Black
2009	Imagine That	Trish
2009	Pastor Brown	Tonya Copeland Brown
2011	35 and Ticking	Zenobia
2012	Vipaka	Sophie
2014	Repentance	Sophie Sanchez
2016	A Meyers Christmas		Filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1999-2000	Cosby	Rebecca	3 episodes
2002	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Lillie Iv	Episode: "Primum Non Nocere"
2003	The System	Linda Evans	Series regular, 9 episodes
2004	All of Us	Traci Garrison	Episode: "Playdate"
2000-2004	Soul Food	Teri Joseph	Series regular, 74 episodes
2004-2005	Second Time Around	Ryan Muse	Series regular, 13 episodes
2008	Never Better	Allison	TV pilot
2010	The Deep End	Susan Oppenheim	Series regular, 6 episodes
2011	Big Mike	Grace Peterson	TV pilot
2013	Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives	Paula	TV pilot
2013	Real Husbands of Hollywood	Herself	5 episodes
2013	Revolution	Justine Allenford	8 episodes
2014	Murder in the First	Jacqueline Perez	Series regular
2015	The Boris & Nicole Show	Herself
2015	Rosewood	Kat Crawford	Recurring

Awards and nominations

List of awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result
2001	Image Awards	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture	Remember the Titans	Nominated
2001	Image Awards	Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series	Soul Food	Nominated
2002	Image Awards	Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series	Soul Food	Nominated
2003	Image Awards	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture	Brown Sugar	Nominated
2003	Image Awards	Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series	Soul Food	Nominated
2004	Image Awards	Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series	Soul Food	Nominated
2005	Image Awards	Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series	Soul Food	Nominated
1998	Screen Actors Guild	Outstanding Cast in a Motion Picture	Boogie Nights	Nominated

Charities

Nicole Ari Parker supports the following charitable cause: Spine Disorders.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]