Southern-bred Mary-Louise Parker, from Fort Jackson, South Carolina, was born the youngest of four children to Judge John Morgan Parker and the former Caroline Louise Morell. She comes from Swedish, English, Scottish, Scotch-Irish, German, and Dutch ancestry. Her father's occupation took the family both around the country and abroad while growing up.
Parker showed potential in her teens and majored in acting in her college years, graduating from the North Carolina School of the Arts. Beginning her acting career with a part on the daytime soap Ryan's Hope (1975), Mary decided to test the waters in New York, and after work on the off-Broadway stage in the late 1980s, made her Broadway debut with "Prelude to a Kiss" in 1990, where she won the Theatre World Award, the Clarence Derwent Award and a Tony nomination. Films and TV quickly followed and she quickly gained attention. She provided both poignant and amusing as the token femme friend to a group of gay men in the AIDS drama Longtime Companion (1989), but really caught fire with her feisty, standout performance in Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), holding her own against such female powerhouses as Jessica Tandy, Kathy Bates and Mary Stuart Masterson. Dubbed by some as the "long-suffering girl next door", she played such noble offbeat miserables and cast-asides in Grand Canyon (1991), Naked in New York (1993), Bullets Over Broadway (1994), The Client (1994) Boys on the Side (1995), in which she was the AIDS victim this time, The Portrait of a Lady (1996), The Maker (1997), Let the Devil Wear Black (1999), Red Dragon (2002) and Pipe Dream (2002). Preferring quality over quantity, she perfected her craft with offbeat roles in independent features and did not abandon her theater roots. She copped a slew of acting prizes for her stage work in "How I Learned to Drive" (1996) and, most notably, "Proof" in 2000, wherein she won nearly every award there is to attain, including the prestigious Tony. Her marquee name still does not command what it should, but a picture or production with Mary-Louise Parker in it usually guarantees a strong critical reception. Unmarried, she did enter into a longtime companionship with actor Billy Crudup after the twosome appeared opposite each other in the 1996 play, "Bus Stop". They went their separate ways in 2003, amid major controversy (she was pregnant at the time).
Mary Louise continues to divide her time equally and skillfully on TV, film and the stage. The powerful TV miniseries adaptation of Tony Kushner heralded award-winning Broadway play Angels in America (2003), directed by Mike Nichols, earned the actress supporting performance Golden Globe and Emmy awards. She also earned a Tony nomination for the Broadway show, "Reckless", a year later but truly turned heads and wowed audiences the year after that in the highly acclaimed 7-season HBO series Weeds (2005), earning another Golden Globe and several Emmy nominations for her amazing performance as Nancy Botwin, a relatively naïve suburban housewife and mother who courts serious trouble with the law and drug cartels when she turns into a neighborhood drug dealer for sustenance after her husband dies suddenly. Since then she has appeared in RED 2 (2013), R.I.P.D. (2013), Jamesy Boy (2014), Behaving Badly (2014), Chronically Metropolitan (2016)
Adopting a second child from Ethiopia, Mary Louise was acknowledged in 2013 for her significant contributions to Hope North, an organization that works in the educating and healing of young victims caught in Uganda's civil war. Her memoir-in-letters, Dear Mr. You, came out in 2015.
Known For
Credits
Cast Credits
Jane (2023)
Guest starring as Robin
- Episode 1x04: Acerodon jubatus (Apr 14, 2023) [Special Guest Star]
Mr. Mercedes (2017)
Starring as Janey Patterson
(6 episodes)
- Episode 1x07: Willow Lake (Sep 20, 2017)
- Episode 1x06: People in the Rain (Sep 13, 2017)
- Episode 1x05: The Suicide Hour (Sep 6, 2017)
- Episode 1x04: Gods Who Fall (Aug 30, 2017)
- Episode 1x03: Cloudy, With a Chance of Mayhem (Aug 23, 2017)
- Episode 1x02: On Your Mark (Aug 16, 2017)
Billions (2016)
Guest starring as Ms. George Minchak
(2 episodes)
- Episode 2x12: Ball in Hand (May 7, 2017)
- Episode 2x10: With or Without You (Apr 23, 2017)
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (2015)
Guest starring as Mary-Louise Parker
- Episode 2016-10-27: Mary-Louise Parker; Pusha T; The Record Company (Oct 27, 2016)
Late Night with Seth Meyers (2014)
Guest starring as Mary-Louise Parker
- Episode 2022-04-28: Andrew Garfield, Mary Louise Parker, Fred Eltringham (Apr 28, 2022)
The Blacklist (2013)
Guest starring as Naomi Hyland
(4 episodes)
- Episode 2x04: Dr. Linus Creel (No. 82) (Oct 13, 2014) [Special Guest Star]
- Episode 2x03: Dr. James Covington (No. 89) (Oct 6, 2014) [Special Guest Star]
- Episode 2x02: Monarch Douglas Bank (No. 112) (Sep 29, 2014) [Special Guest Star]
- Episode 2x01: Lord Baltimore (No. 104) (Sep 22, 2014) [Special Guest Star]
America in Primetime (2012)
Guest starring as Mary-Louise Parker
- Episode 1x02: Independent Woman (Nov 24, 2012)
Conan (2010)
Guest starring as Mary-Louise Parker
- Episode 2013-07-09: When Your Friend's Kid Just Starts Listing Dinosaurs, It's Okay to Give Him Beer. (Jul 9, 2013)
Weeds (2005)
Starring as Nancy Botwin
(51 episodes)
- Episode 8x13: It's Time (2) (Sep 16, 2012)
- Episode 8x12: It's Time (1) (Sep 16, 2012)
- Episode 8x11: God Willing and the Creek Don't Rise (Sep 9, 2012)
- Episode 8x10: Threshold (Sep 2, 2012)
- Episode 8x09: Saplings (Aug 26, 2012)
- Episode 8x08: Five Miles from Yetzer Hara (Aug 19, 2012)
- Episode 8x07: Unfreeze (Aug 12, 2012)
- Episode 8x06: Allosaurus Crush Castle (Aug 5, 2012)
- Episode 8x05: Red in Tooth and Claw (Jul 29, 2012)
- Episode 8x04: Only Judy Can Judge (Jul 22, 2012)
- Episode 8x03: See Blue and Smell Cheese and Die (Jul 15, 2012)
- Episode 8x02: A Beam of Sunshine (Jul 8, 2012)
- Episode 8x01: Messy (Jul 1, 2012)
- Episode 7x13: Do Her/Don't Do Her (Sep 26, 2011)
- Episode 7x12: Qualitative Spatial Reasoning (Sep 19, 2011)
- Episode 7x11: Une Mère Que J'aimerais Baiser (Sep 12, 2011)
- Episode 7x10: System Overhead (Aug 29, 2011)
- Episode 7x09: Cats! Cats! Cats! (Aug 22, 2011)
- Episode 7x08: Synthetics (Aug 15, 2011)
- Episode 7x07: Vehement v. Vigorous (Aug 8, 2011)
- Episode 7x06: Object Impermanence (Aug 1, 2011)
- Episode 7x05: Fingers Only Meat Banquet (Jul 25, 2011)
- Episode 7x04: A Hole in Her Niqab (Jul 18, 2011)
- Episode 7x03: Game-Played (Jul 11, 2011)
- Episode 7x02: From Trauma Cometh Something (Jul 4, 2011)
- Episode 7x01: Bags (Jun 27, 2011)
- Episode 6x13: Theoretical Love is Not Dead (Nov 15, 2010)
- Episode 6x12: Fran Tarkenton (Nov 8, 2010)
- Episode 6x11: Viking Pride (Nov 1, 2010)
- Episode 6x10: Dearborn-Again (Oct 25, 2010)
- Episode 6x09: To Moscow, and Quickly (Oct 18, 2010)
- Episode 6x08: Gentle Puppies (Oct 11, 2010)
- Episode 6x07: Pinwheels and Whirligigs (Oct 4, 2010)
- Episode 6x06: A Shoe for a Shoe (Sep 27, 2010)
- Episode 6x05: Boomerang (Sep 20, 2010)
- Episode 6x04: Bliss (Sep 13, 2010)
- Episode 6x03: A Yippity Sippity (Aug 30, 2010)
- Episode 6x02: Felling and Swamping (Aug 23, 2010)
- Episode 5x01: Wonderful Wonderful (Jun 8, 2009)
- Episode 4x13: If You Work for a Living, Then Why Do You Kill Yourself Working? (Sep 15, 2008)
- Episode 4x12: Till We Meet Again (Sep 8, 2008)
- Episode 4x11: Head Cheese (Aug 25, 2008)
- Episode 4x10: The Love Circle Overlap (Aug 18, 2008)
- Episode 4x04: The Three Coolers (Jul 7, 2008)
- Episode 4x03: The Whole Blah Damn Thing (Jun 30, 2008)
- Episode 4x02: Lady's a Charm (Jun 23, 2008)
- Episode 4x01: Mother Thinks the Birds Are After Her (Jun 16, 2008)
- Episode 1x04: Fashion of the Christ (Aug 29, 2005)
- Episode 1x03: Good Shit Lollipop (Aug 22, 2005)
- Episode 1x02: Free Goat (Aug 15, 2005)
- Episode 1x01: You Can't Miss the Bear (Aug 7, 2005)
Angels in America (2003)
Starring as Harper Pitt
(6 episodes)
- Episode 1x06: Perestroika: Chapter Six - Heaven, I'm in Heaven (Dec 14, 2003)
- Episode 1x05: Perestroika: Chapter Five - Beyond Nelly (Dec 14, 2003)
- Episode 1x04: Perestroika: Chapter Four - Stop Moving! (Dec 14, 2003)
- Episode 1x03: Millennium Approaches: Chapter Three - The Messenger (Dec 7, 2003)
- Episode 1x02: Millennium Approaches: Chapter Two - In Vitro (Dec 7, 2003)
- Episode 1x01: Millennium Approaches: Chapter One - Bad News (Dec 7, 2003)
The West Wing (1999)
Guest starring as Amy Gardner
(23 episodes)
- Episode 7x20: The Last Hurrah (Apr 30, 2006) [Special Guest Star]
- Episode 7x18: Requiem (Apr 16, 2006) [Special Guest Star]
- Episode 6x15: Freedonia (Feb 16, 2005) [Special Guest Star]
- Episode 5x05: Constituency of One (Oct 29, 2003) [Special Guest Star]
- Episode 5x04: Han (Oct 22, 2003) [Special Guest Star]
- Episode 5x03: Jefferson Lives (Oct 8, 2003) [Special Guest Star]
- Episode 5x02: The Dogs of War (Oct 1, 2003) [Special Guest Star]
- Episode 4x23: Twenty Five (May 14, 2003) [Special Guest Star]
- Episode 4x22: Commencement (May 7, 2003) [Special Guest Star]
- Episode 4x18: Privateers (Mar 26, 2003) [Special Guest Star]
- Episode 4x17: Red Haven's on Fire (Feb 26, 2003) [Special Guest Star]
- Episode 4x10: Arctic Radar (Nov 27, 2002) [Special Guest Star]
- Episode 4x08: Process Stories (Nov 13, 2002) [Special Guest Star]
- Episode 4x05: Debate Camp (Oct 16, 2002) [Special Guest Star]
- Episode 4x04: The Red Mass (Oct 9, 2002) [Special Guest Star]
- Episode 4x03: College Kids (Oct 2, 2002) [Special Guest Star]
- Episode 3x21: Posse Comitatus (May 22, 2002) [Special Guest Star]
- Episode 3x20: We Killed Yamamoto (May 15, 2002) [Special Guest Star]
- Episode 3x15: Dead Irish Writers (Mar 6, 2002) [Special Guest Star]
- Episode 3x12: The Two Bartlets (Jan 30, 2002) [Special Guest Star]
- Episode 3x11: 100,000 Airplanes (Jan 16, 2002) [Special Guest Star]
- Episode 3x10: H. Con-172 (Jan 9, 2002) [Special Guest Star]
- Episode 3x08: The Women of Qumar (Nov 28, 2001) [Special Guest Star]
The Late Show with David Letterman (1993)
Guest starring as Mary-Louise Parker
- Episode 1995-02-03: Bob Dole, Mary-Louise Parker, Pam Tillis (Feb 3, 1995)
American Experience (1988)
Guest starring as Rachel Carson
- Episode 29x02: Rachel Carson (Jan 24, 2017)
Good Morning America (1975)
Guest starring as Mary-Louise Parker
- Episode 2017-03-16: Episode 54 (Mar 16, 2017)
Tony Awards (1957)
Guest starring as Mary-Louise Parker
- Episode 2001-06-03: The 55th Annual Tony Awards (Jun 3, 2001)