Lana Maria Parrilla is an American actress born on July 15, 1977, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Her father, Sam Parrilla, was a Puerto Rico-born baseball player who played professionally for 11 seasons, including one season with the Major League Philadelphia Phillies in 1970.
Parrilla's early career included appearances in several movies, including Very Mean Men, Spiders, and Frozen Stars. She made her television debut in 1999 on the UPN sitcom Grown Ups. In 2000, she joined the cast of the ABC comedy series Spin City, playing Angie Ordonez for one season.
After leaving Spin City, Parrilla joined Donnie Wahlberg and Neal McDonough in the short-lived crime drama Boomtown, for which she received the Imagen Award for Best Supporting Actress. Initially a success, Boomtown struggled, and Parrilla's character became a police academy rookie.
Parrilla guest-starred in numerous television dramas, including JAG, Six Feet Under, Covert Affairs, Medium, The Defenders, and Chase. She had a recurring role in 2004 as Officer Janet Grafton in NYPD Blue. In 2005, she took a recurring guest role on the fourth season of the Fox series 24 as Sarah Gavin.
In 2006, Parrilla starred in the NBC summer series Windfall alongside Luke Perry and Sarah Wynter. In 2007, she guest-starred as Greta during the third season of ABC's Lost. In 2008, she had a leading role on the Lifetime movie The Double Life of Eleanor Kendall and starred in the CBS summer series Swingtown.
In 2010, Parrilla had a female lead role in the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced Miami Medical on CBS. In February 2011, she was cast as Mayor Regina Mills/The Evil Queen in the ABC adventure fantasy drama pilot, Once Upon a Time. The series debuted in October 2011 and received generally favorable reviews from critics.
Parrilla's performance received positive reviews from critics, earning her a nomination for Best Supporting Actress on Television from the 38th Saturn Awards. She won the TV Guide Award for Favorite Villain and the ALMA Award for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series in 2012.