Mary-Louise Parker Biography

Mary-Louise Parker is a leading lady of stage and screen who is best known for her role as a suburban dope dealer in the cable TV series Weeds (2005-12).

Mary-Louise Parker got her first breaks on Broadway, where she won rave reviews for Prelude to a Kiss (1990-91) and a Tony Award for Proof (2000-03). She made her mark on the big screen in Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) and Boys on the Side (1995), and an even bigger impression on TV with the miniseries Angels in America (2003). Her recurring role as Amy Gardner on The West Wing (2001-06) won her an Emmy Award as Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2002.

She suffered through the tabloid role of jilted girlfriend in 2003, when longtime boyfriend Billy Crudup left their relationship while Parker was seven months pregnant, but her career continued to zoom forward. (Their son, William, was born the next year.) Then Weeds, a doped-up comedy-drama on the cable channel Showtime, brought her nearly to household-name status. The earned three Emmy nominations as Nancy Botwin, a suburban widow who turns tigress when she decides to pay her bills by selling dope.

On film, Mary Louise Parker has appeared in features including The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007, opposite Brad Pitt), The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008), the jokey action films Red (2010) and Red 2 (2013, both with Bruce Willis), and the non-jokey action film Red Sparrow (2018, with Jennifer Lawrence).