Nicole Ari Parker facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Nicole Ari Parker
Parker at Paris Fashion Week, 2023
Born	(1970-10-07) October 7, 1970 (age 54) Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Alma mater	New York University (BFA)
Occupation	Actress, model
Years active	1993–present
Spouse(s)	Joseph Falasca ​ ​ (m. 2001; annulled 2001)​ Boris Kodjoe ​ (m. 2005)​
Children	2

Nicole Ari Parker Kodjoe, born on October 7, 1970, is a talented American actress and model. She started her acting journey in 1995 with a main role in the independent film The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love.

Nicole has appeared in many popular movies. These include Blue Streak (1999), Remember the Titans (2000), and Brown Sugar (2002). She also starred in Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins (2008) and Almost Christmas (2016). On TV, Nicole played the main character, attorney Teri Joseph, in the drama series Soul Food from 2000 to 2004. She was nominated for five NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series awards for this role. Later, she joined the cast of the TV show Empire in 2017. Since 2021, she has been starring as Lisa Todd Wexley in the HBO Max series And Just Like That....

Nicole Ari Parker's Early Life

Nicole Ari Parker was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on October 7, 1970. She is the only child of her parents, Susan and Donald Parker. Her mother worked in healthcare, and her father was a dentist.

Nicole first attended a Montessori school. Then, she went to Roland Park Country School through high school. When she was 17, she won the Best Actress award in Maryland's high school theater competition. She was also a member of The Washington Ballet Company. In 1993, she earned an acting degree from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

Nicole Ari Parker's Acting Career

Nicole Parker began her acting career in 1993. She had a smaller role in the TV movie Other Women's Children. Two years later, she starred in the independent comedy-drama film The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love. In the same year, she also appeared in Divas, a TV musical drama about a singing group.

Nicole Parker at a performance in December 2010

In 1998, she was in the TV movie Exiled: A Law & Order Movie. Other films she appeared in include The End of Violence (1997) and Blue Streak (1999).

In 2000, Nicole played a main role in the drama film Dancing in September. She also starred with Denzel Washington in the movie Remember the Titans. For this role, she was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture. That same year, she started playing Teri Joseph in the Showtime drama series Soul Food. This show was based on a 1997 film. The series finished in 2004. Nicole received five NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series nominations for her work on Soul Food.

She returned to movies in 2002 with the romantic comedy Brown Sugar. Later, she appeared in King's Ransom (2005) and Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins (2008). She also starred in Black Dynamite (2009) and Imagine That (2009).

Nicole Parker with Vanessa Estelle Williams in 2011

On television, Nicole starred in the sitcom Second Time Around from 2004 to 2005. In 2010, she was in the ABC legal drama The Deep End. In 2012, she performed on Broadway in the play A Streetcar Named Desire. In 2014, she was a regular cast member in the first season of the TNT crime drama Murder in the First. In 2016, she appeared in the comedy-drama film Almost Christmas.

In 2017, Nicole joined the cast of the Fox TV show Empire. She played Giselle Barker. She became a main cast member for the fifth season and stayed until the show ended in 2020. From 2020 to 2021, Nicole had a recurring role on the NBC series Chicago P.D. In late 2021, she began starring in the HBO Max comedy-drama series And Just Like That.... In 2022, she also appeared in the Peacock miniseries The Best Man: The Final Chapters.

Nicole Ari Parker's Personal Life

Nicole Parker is married to her Soul Food co-star Boris Kodjoe. They got married in Germany on May 21, 2005. They have two children. Their daughter, Sophie, was born in March 2005. Their son, Nicolas, was born in October 2006. The family attends church in Atlanta.

Nicole Ari Parker's Filmography

Here are some of the movies Nicole Ari Parker has been in:

Films

Key

Denotes films that have not yet been released

Television Shows

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1997	Subway Stories	Sharon	Episode: "Honey-Getter"
1999–2000	Cosby	Rebecca	Recurring cast: season 4
2000	The Wonderful World of Disney	Christine Claiborne	Episode: "The Loretta Claiborne Story"
2000–2004	Soul Food	Teri Joseph	Main cast Nominated — NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series (2001-2005) Nominated — BET Award for Best Actress (2003)
2002	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Lillie Ivers	Episode: "Primum Non Nocere"
2003	The System	Linda Evans	Main cast
2004	All of Us	Traci Garrison	Episode: "Playdate"
2004–2005	Second Time Around	Ryan Muse	Main cast
2010	The Deep End	Susan Oppenheim	Main cast
2013	Revolution	Secretary Justine Allenford	Recurring cast: season 2
2013–2015	Real Husbands of Hollywood	Herself	Recurring cast: season 1–4
2014	Murder in the First	District Attorney Jacqueline Perez	Recurring cast: season 1
2015	The Boris & Nicole Show	Herself/co-host	TV series
2015–2016	Rosewood	Kat Crawford	Recurring cast: season 1
2017	Time After Time	Vanessa Anders	Main cast
2017–2020	Empire	Giselle Barker	Recurring cast: season 4, main cast: season 5–6
2018	I'm Dying Up Here	Gloria Whitfield	Recurring cast: season 2
	The Romanoffs	Cheryl Gowans	Episode: "Bright and High Circle"
2019	Lip Sync Battle	Herself	Episode: "Boris Kodjoe vs. Nicole Ari Parker"
	Younger	Beth	Guest star: season 6
2020–2021	Chicago P.D.	Deputy Superintendent Samantha Miller	Recurring cast: Season 8–9
2021–present	And Just Like That...	Lisa Todd Wexley	Recurring cast: season 1, main cast: season 2–present
2022	The Best Man: The Final Chapters	Xiomara Amani	Special guest star; 2 episodes
2026	Lanterns	Bernadette Stewart	Filming

See also

In Spanish: Nicole Ari Parker para niños