Parker Posey facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Parker Posey
Posey in 2018
Born	Parker Christian Posey (1968-11-08) November 8, 1968 (age 56) Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Education	State University of New York, Purchase (BFA)
Occupation	Actress musician
Years active	1991–present

Parker Christian Posey (born November 8, 1968) is an American actress. She was labeled "Queen of the Indies" for her roles in a succession of independent films throughout the 1990s, such as Dazed and Confused (1993), Party Girl, The Doom Generation, Kicking and Screaming (all 1995), The Daytrippers (1996), The House of Yes, Clockwatchers (both 1997), and Henry Fool (1998). She is the recipient of nominations for a Golden Globe, a Satellite Award, and two Independent Spirit Awards.

Although she began to work in bigger projects during the late 1990s, Posey has continued to work in small-scale features such as Personal Velocity: Three Portraits (2002), Fay Grim (2006), Broken English (2007), and Columbus (2017). Her more mainstream credits include You've Got Mail (1998), Scream 3 (2000), Josie and the Pussycats (2001), The Sweetest Thing (2002), Blade: Trinity (2004), Superman Returns (2006), Café Society (2016), and Beau Is Afraid (2023). She frequently works with Christopher Guest and has co-starred in several of his mockumentaries: Waiting for Guffman (1996), Best in Show (2000), A Mighty Wind (2003), For Your Consideration (2006), and Mascots (2016).

On television, Posey appeared in the recurring role of Alice White on BYUtv's Granite Flats (2015), co-starred as Dr. Smith on all three seasons of Netflix's Lost in Space (2018–2021), and won critical acclaim for playing Freda Black in the HBO Max miniseries The Staircase (2022).

Early life

Posey was born November 8, 1968, in Baltimore, Maryland, to Lynda (née Patton), a chef, and Chris Posey, owner of a car dealership. She has a twin brother, Christopher. After Posey's birth, her family lived in Monroe, Louisiana, for 11 years. They later moved to Laurel, Mississippi, where her mother worked as a chef and culinary instructor for the Viking Range Corporation in Greenwood and her father operated a car dealership. Posey was raised Catholic.

Career

Acting

Posey attended the State University of New York at Purchase, where she studied drama.

Posey got her first break in television with the role of Tess Shelby on the daytime soap opera As the World Turns. Posey's first major role in a feature film was in Dazed and Confused (1993). The film received favorable reviews from critics and has been identified as a cult classic.

In 1994, she appeared in Hal Hartley's short film Opera No. 1. Throughout the late 1990s, Posey co-starred in 32 independent films and was nicknamed "Queen of the Indies". These films include Basquiat, Clockwatchers, The Daytrippers, Party Girl and The House of Yes. In particular, she received positive reviews for The House of Yes, for her role as a delusional woman in love with her own brother.

She has co-starred in many of Christopher Guest's films, including five of his mock documentaries, the first being Waiting for Guffman in 1996. In 1998, Posey appeared in Hartley's film Henry Fool, and the big-budget studio film You've Got Mail.

Posey exiting the premiere of the film Mascots at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2016

In 2000, she starred in Guest's third mock documentary Best in Show and in the big-budget horror film Scream 3. Critical reaction to Posey's performance in the latter film was highly positive and earned her an MTV Movie Award nomination. The next year she starred in Josie and the Pussycats. From 2001 to 2002, she appeared in a supporting role in the popular NBC sitcom Will & Grace.

In 2003, she starred in Guest's A Mighty Wind. The next year she appeared in Sisters of Mercy, Laws of Attraction, and Blade: Trinity. Posey then co-starred in the 2005 film Adam & Steve.

In 2006, Posey appeared in Superman Returns as Kitty Kowalski, Lex Luthor's ditzy sidekick, a character based on Eve Teschmacher from the 1978 film Superman. Posey was the only actress considered for the role. Superman Returns was a box-office success. The film was also successful at the 33rd Saturn Awards. Posey, a few fellow cast members, and the visual effects department were all nominated. Later the same year, she played the title character in Fay Grim, the sequel to Henry Fool, and appeared in For Your Consideration.

In 2007, Posey was cast in the lead role in the television series The Return of Jezebel James. The show was originally given a 13-episode order, but the show was cut to seven episodes in anticipation of a pending scriptwriters’ strike. It premiered on the Fox television network in 2008 as a mid-season replacement. However, the show was officially canceled after the third episode aired owing to low ratings.

Posey starred in Zoe Cassavetes's 2007 film Broken English. Broken English screened at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. It was also entered into the 29th Moscow International Film Festival. The film was nominated at the 23rd Independent Spirit Awards for Best First Screenplay and Posey was nominated for Best Female Lead. She was set to co-star in John Waters' film Fruitcake. The film was to be set in her hometown of Baltimore, Maryland. However, in 2018, Waters announced that he had canceled Fruitcake, saying "I can't get it made... I thought it would do well, but it's not. In this economy, I'm going to have to do a puppet show."

In 2012, Posey starred in four episodes of the third season of Louie as Liz, Louis C.K.'s love interest. She received positive reviews for her stint on the show. The website Vulture stated: "Posey is superb in a brilliantly written role." Lindsay Bahr of Entertainment Weekly said "Posey used her arsenal of talent and the material written and directed by C.K. to bring Liz to life". Andy Greenwald of GrantLand felt Posey was "funny, engaging, and breathless" and went on to call Posey "one of the most gifted actors alive". Later the same year, she was honored with the Excellence in Acting Award at the Provincetown International Film Festival.

Posey appeared in Ned Rifle, the third and final film in Hartley's Henry Fool trilogy, again reprising her role of Fay Grim. On November 6, 2013, Hartley launched a fundraising campaign through Kickstarter to produce the film, netting a total of $384,000. Posey, along with several other cast members as well as some crew members, appeared in several videos promoting the campaign. The film premiered on September 7, 2014, at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. It was also screened in the Panorama section of the 65th Berlin International Film Festival on February 6, 2015.

In July 2014, it was announced that Posey had signed on to co-star in Woody Allen's mystery drama Irrational Man. The film had its world premiere on May 16, 2015, at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. In July 2015, Parker revealed that before being cast in the film, she had considered quitting acting, as she feared that she "saw the independent film movement go away from me... it's a world market now. They're made from real star power. Whoever's hot at the moment." When Allen cast her, she cried, as "the independent film way of working is something that was in my bones. It's like being a part of a punk band but no one's singing punk rock anymore. Only a few bands are able to play, and Woody Allen is one of them. That's why I cried. It was a relief."

From 2018 to 2021, she appeared as Dr. Smith in Lost in Space, the Netflix remake of the 1965 TV series.

In 2022 she starred in episode two of Tales of the Walking Dead, an anthology series based on the AMC series The Walking Dead.

As of 2024 Posey is set to star in the upcoming third season of the Emmy Award-winning show The White Lotus; filming is set to take place in Thailand on February 2024.

Audio fiction

In late 2019, Posey starred in an audio fiction podcast called Hunted wherein she plays the part of a U.S. Deputy Marshal tracking four escaped convicts from a federal maximum-security correctional facility. The eight-episode show is produced by Wolf Entertainment and Endeavor Audio.

Stage and music

Posey appeared on Broadway in 2000, playing in Elaine May's Taller Than a Dwarf, which was directed by Alan Arkin. She later appeared off Broadway in David Rabe's Hurlyburly in 2005, and then originated the role of Pony Jones in Will Eno's The Realistic Joneses in 2012.

She learned to play the mandolin to prepare for her role in A Mighty Wind (2003), a film in which she also sang. She provided vocals on several of her ex-boyfriend Ryan Adams' records. She also played the mandolin on The Dandy Warhols track "I Am Sound" from their Welcome to the Monkey House LP.

Memoir

You're on an Airplane: A Self-Mythologizing Memoir (2018, Blue Rider Press) is Posey's first book. Centered on the idea that the reader is sitting next to Posey on an airplane, the book mixes personal anecdotes from her career, random observations, stories about her life, and homemade photo collages. The book received critical acclaim. Vogue wrote "Excellent... a celebration of peculiarity." According to Elle magazine, the memoir is "a humour-packed, irreverent, eccentric book packed with personal stories, whimsical how-tos and recipes, as well as collages made by her." Esquire wrote "Posey is a natural storyteller; performing, in any way really, is mostly about sharing stories. And she's gathered some good ones for her memoir, which also perfectly encapsulates the delightful weirdo you assume she is just by watching her play different people on screen."

Personal life

Posey has lived in both Greenwich Village and the East Village in New York City.

Filmography

Film

Posey in May 2007

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1993	Coneheads	Stephanie
1993	Joey Breaker	Irene Kildare
1993	Description of a Struggle	Wanda
1993	Dazed and Confused	Darla Marks
1994	Mixed Nuts	Rollerblader
1994	Amateur	Girl Squatter
1994	Final Combination	Denise
1994	Sleep with Me	Athena
1995	Party Girl	Mary
1995	Drunks	Debbie
1995	Flirt	Emily
1995	The Doom Generation	Brandi
1995	Kicking and Screaming	Miami
1996	Frisk	Fergie
1996	subUrbia	Erica
1996	Basquiat	Mary Boone
1997	The House of Yes	"Jackie-O" Pascal
1997	The Daytrippers	Jo Malone
1997	Waiting for Guffman	Libby Mae Brown
1997	Clockwatchers	Margaret Burre
1998	Henry Fool	Fay Grim
1998	What Rats Won't Do	Mirella Burton
1998	You've Got Mail	Patricia Eden
1998	The Misadventures of Margaret	Margaret Nathan
1999	Dinner at Fred's	Celia
1999	The Venice Project	Myra
2000	Scream 3	Jennifer Jolie (aka Judy Jurgenstern)
2000	Best in Show	Meg Swan
2001	The Anniversary Party	Judy Adams
2001	Josie and the Pussycats	Fiona
2002	The Sweetest Thing	Judy Webb
2002	Personal Velocity	Greta
2003	A Mighty Wind	Sissy Knox
2003	The Event	Nick
2004	Blade: Trinity	Danica Talos
2004	Laws of Attraction	Serena Jamison
2005	Adam & Steve	Rhonda
2006	For Your Consideration	Callie Webb
2006	Fay Grim	Fay Grim
2006	The OH in Ohio	Priscilla Chase
2006	Superman Returns	Kitty Kowalski
2007	Broken English	Nora Wilder
2008	The Eye	Helen Wells
2009	Spring Breakdown	Becky St. Germaine	Direct-to-DVD
2009	Happy Tears	Jayne
2011	Inside Out	Claire Small
2011	The Love Guide	Angelica Lovecraft
2012	Price Check	Susan Felders
2013	Highland Park	Shirley Paine
2013	Hair Brained	Shelia Pettifog
2013	And Now a Word From Our Sponsor	Karen Hillridge
2014	Grace of Monaco	Madge Tivey-Faucon
2014	Ned Rifle	Fay Grim
2015	Irrational Man	Rita Richards
2016	Café Society	Rad
2016	The Architect	Drew
2016	Mascots	Cindi Babineaux
2017	Columbus	Eleanor
2018	The Con Is On	Gina
2019	Elsewhere	Marie
2023	Beau Is Afraid	Elaine Bray
2024	Thelma	Gail
TBA	The Parenting	Elizabeth	Post-production

Key

Denotes films that have not yet been released

Television

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1991	First Love, Fatal Love		Television film
1992	As the World Turns	Tess Shelby	Episode: "December 24, 1992"
1993	Tales of the City	Connie Bradshaw	4 episodes
1993	Tracey Ullman Takes on New York	Libby	TV special
1998	More Tales of the City	Connie Bradshaw	Episode: "1.1"
2000	Futurama	Umbriel	Voice; episode: "The Deep South"
2000	The Simpsons	Becky	Voice; episode: "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Marge"
2001	Further Tales of the City	Connie Bradshaw	3 episodes
2001	Will & Grace	Dorleen	2 episodes
2002	Hell on Heels: The Battle of Mary Kay	Jinger Heath	Television film
2004	Frankenstein	Detective Carson O'Conner	Television film
2006	Boston Legal	Marlene Stanger	4 episodes
2008	The Return of Jezebel James	Sarah Tompkins	7 episodes
2009	Bored to Death	Michelle Whiting	Episode: "The Case of the Stolen Skateboard"
2011	Parks and Recreation	Lindsay Carlisle Shay	Episode: "Eagleton"
2011	The Big C	Poppy Kowalski	3 episodes
2011–2012	The Good Wife	Vanessa Gold	3 episodes
2012	Hemingway & Gellhorn	Mary Welsh Hemingway	Television film
2012	Louie	Liz	4 episodes
2012	New Girl	Casey	Episode: "Re-Launch"
2014	Inside Amy Schumer	Parker Posey	Episode: "Allergic to Nuts"
2015	Portlandia	Herself	Episode: "Fashion"
2015	Granite Flats	Alice White	8 episodes
2015	... History	Mary Phelps Jacob	Episode: "Inventors"
2016	Skylanders Academy	Dreamcatcher	Voice; episode: "Dream Girls"
2016	Bream Gives Me Hiccups	Deborah Katzman	Pilot
2016	Search Party	"Brick"	3 episodes
2018–2021	Lost in Space	Dr. Smith / June Harris	28 episodes
2018	Robot Chicken	Lenny Busker / Angela / Sphinx	Voice; episode: "Gimme That Chocolate Milk"
2020	High Fidelity	Noreen Parker	Episode: "Uptown"
2022	The Staircase	Freda Black	6 episodes
2022	Tales of the Walking Dead	Blair Crawford	Episode: "Blair / Gina"
2024	Mr. & Mrs. Smith	Second Other Jane	2 episodes
2024	Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur	Kat Swan	Voice; episode: "Dog Day Mid-Afternoon"
2025	The White Lotus	TBA	Upcoming series

Key

Denotes series that have not yet been released

Stage

Awards and nominations

• Won the Sundance Film Festival Award for Special Recognition for The House of Yes (1997)
• Nominated for the Satellite Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for The House of Yes (1997)
• Nominated for the MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic Performance for Scream 3 (2000)
• Nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film for Hell on Heels: The Battle of Mary Kay (2002)
• Nominated for a Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female for Personal Velocity (2002)
• 2nd place for the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress for Personal Velocity (2002)
• Won the Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Cast for A Mighty Wind (2003)
• Nominated for the Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast for A Mighty Wind (2003)
• Nominated for a Gotham Independent Film Award for Best Ensemble Cast for For Your Consideration (2006)
• Nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress for Superman Returns (2006)
• Nominated for a Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female for Broken English (2007)
• Nominated for a Fright Meter Awards for Best Supporting Actress for The Eye (2008)
• Nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress in Streaming Presentation for Lost in Space (2019)

See also

In Spanish: Parker Posey para niños In Spanish: Parker Posey para niños