The Independent Lens Host

Mary-Louise Parker
Mary-Louise Parker

    Previous Hosts:

  • America Ferrera
    America Ferrera
  • Maggie Gyllenhaal
    Maggie Gyllenhaal
  • Terrence Howard
    Terrence Howard
  • Edie Falco
    Edie Falco
  • Susan Sarandon
    Susan Sarandon
  • Don Cheadle
    Don Cheadle
  • Angela Basset
    Angela Basset

Mary-Louise Parker

Mary-Louise Parker is an award-winning actress with a diverse career in film, television, and theater. Her work in television on Showtime's Weeds has garnered five Golden Globe nominations, including one Golden Globe win, four SAG nominations, four Emmy nominations, and one Satellite win and three nominations. In addition to her awards for Weeds, Parker is also the winner of another Golden Globe, a Tony, an Emmy, two Obies, as well as numerous other nominations for her other works seen throughout her career.

Audiences most recently saw Parker on the big screen in the hit action-comedy RED, and in supporting roles in Solitary Man and the Sundance hit Howl with James Franco as Allen Ginsberg.

On the small screen, Parker's work in Mike Nichols's highly acclaimed Angels In America garnered her Emmy and Golden Globe wins and a SAG nomination. She received Emmy nominations for her performance on The West Wing and for her starring role in Robber Bride, for which she won the Gemini Award. Parker also starred in Sugartime, A Place For Annie, Saint Maybe, Cupid & Cate, The Simple Truth of Noah Dearborn, Miracle Run, and Vinegar Hill.

Parker's remarkable film oeuvre includes the dark comedy Saved! and Romance & Cigarettes, written and directed by John Turturro. Parker is known widely for her starring roles in Fried Green Tomatoes, Grand Canyon, Reckless, Boys on the Side, The Client, Naked in New York, Bullets Over Broadway, The Best Thief in the World, Longtime Companion, Pipe Dream, Red Dragon, The Spiderwick Chronicles, and The Five Senses, for which she was nominated for a Genie Award for Best Actress.

Parker also boasts a highly acclaimed and extensive stage career. She made her Broadway debut to rave reviews in Prelude to a Kiss, garnering a Tony® nomination, a Theatre World Award, The Clarence Derwent Award, and a Drama Desk nomination. She originated the role of "Li'l Bit" in the critically lauded How I Learned To Drive, which earned her an Obie Award, a Lucille Lortel Award and an Outer Critics Circle nomination. She also starred in Reckless, for which she received Tony® and Drama League nominations. Her performance in Proof earned her the 2001 Tony® Award, as well as the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League, Lucille Lortel, Obie and New York Magazine Awards. She also earned the 2001 T. Schreiber Award for Outstanding Achievement in Theatre. In 2008, Parker starred in the Playwrights Horizons production of Sarah Ruhl's Dead Man's Cell Phone. She was most recently seen in the Broadway revival of Hedda Gabler, directed by Ian Rickson.

Parker is currently a contributing writer for Esquire.

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Modified 9/19/11