Bio
Molly Parker is a Canadian actress best known for her roles in the television series Deadwood (2004-2006), Six Feet Under (2002) and The Firm, in 2012.
She first came to public attention in the 1996 Lynne Stopkewich film Kissed, in which Parker starred as a sympathetically-portrayed necrophiliac. She received a Genie Award for her performance.
Parker has received much critical praise for her bravery in tackling difficult roles: the aforementioned role in Kissed; a sympathetic lap dancer and paid escort in The Center of the World; and a female rabbi, Ari Hoffman, in Six Feet Under.
In 2010, Parker appeared in two television pilots. She was the lead in Quintuplets opposite Dougray Scott, and in Lifetime's Meet Jane, as a heroic single mother who is enlisted by the FBI to spy on her criminal ex-husband. She also could be seen in a four-episode arc on Showtime's Dexter.
Parker appeared in The Road, directed by John Hillcoat, opposite Viggo Mortensen and Charlize Theron. She also starred for more than three seasons on HBO's critically heralded Deadwood as Alma Garrett, the former New York society woman who reinvents herself by working her claim, adopting an orphan girl and falling for Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant).
Previously, Parker starred with Ben Affleck, Adrien Brody and Diane Lane in Focus Features' Hollywoodland, a drama about the mysterious death of George Reeves (television's Superman).
In Neil LaBute's version of the cult classic The Wicker Man, Parker appeared opposite Nicolas Cage and Ellen Burstyn as an island community teacher.
Parker won the Best Actress Award at the Beverly Hills Film Festival for her work opposite Lukas Haas and Adam Scott in Matt Bissonnette's independent feature Who Loves the Sun, which centers on the rivalry between two reunited childhood friends who compete for the love of the same woman.
In addition, she can be seen in Rodrigo Garcia's critically acclaimed Nine Lives, which topped numerous critics' best films of 2005 lists, and added a riveting performance as a drug addict in London trying to keep her kids in Gillies MacKinnon's Pure.
Parker's credits also include Wayne Wang's Center of the World (Independent Spirit Award nomination, Best Female Lead) opposite Peter Sarsgaard; the Golden Globe-nominated drama Sunshine, in which she co-starred with Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz; Keith Gordon's Waking the Dead, with Billy Crudup and Jennifer Connelly; Menno Meyjes' Max, co-starring John Cusack; and Michael Winterbottom's acclaimed Wonderland, which filmed in London and premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival.
She also starred in Wiebke von Carolsfeld's Marion Bridge (Genie Award winner, Best Supporting Actress); Looking for Leonard, which she also executive produced; the comedies Men with Brooms and Last Wedding, for which she received Genie Award nominations; Rare Birds with William Hurt; Jeremy Podeswa's The Five Senses with Mary Louise-Parker; and the Venice Film Festival entry Suspicious River.
Parker made her feature-film debut as an alluring necrophiliac in Lynne Stopkewich's Kissed, for which she received a Genie Award for Best Actress.
Parker began a relationship with HBO when she appeared as Rabbi Ari on the award-winning series Six Feet Under and subsequently starred with Hilary Swank and Anjelica Huston as a young suffragette in Iron Jawed Angels.
Her additional television credits include Twitch City, the miniseries Intensity, and the TV movie Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story, with Glenn Close.