Lana Parrilla (born July 15, 1977) is an American actress, best known for her roles on Spin City, 24, Boomtown and Miami Medical. She currently stars as The Evil Queen/Regina Mills in the ABC series Once Upon a Time.


Early life

Parrilla was born in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Sam Parrilla, a Puerto Rican professional baseball player for the Philadelphia Phillies in the early 1970s.

Career

She had roles in a few movies, including Very Mean Men (2000), Spiders (2000), Frozen Stars (2003) and Replicant. She was first noticed in the mainstream when she joined the cast of Spin City in 2000, playing Angie Ordonez for one season.

After this, she joined Donnie Wahlberg and Neal McDonough in the 2002 series Boomtown, for which she received the Imagen Award for Best Supporting Actress,in which she played Teresa, a paramedic. Initially a success, Boomtown began to struggle, and Lana's character became a police academy rookie, so as to tie her more closely to the rest of the show. That program was cancelled just two episodes into its second season.

Parrilla guest-starred in shows such as JAG, NYPD Blue and Six Feet Under. In 2005, Parrilla took a recurring guest role on the fourth season of 24 as Sarah Gavin, a Counter Terrorist Unit agent. After just six episodes, Lana was promoted to a main cast member, but in the thirteenth episode, she was written out after her character tried to blackmail a promotion from temporary CTU head Michelle Dessler (Reiko Aylesworth}.

In 2006, Parrilla starred in the NBC summer series Windfall alongside Luke Perry, fellow former 24 cast member Sarah Wynter, and Parilla's former Boomtown castmate Jason Gedrick.

In 2007, Parrilla guest starred as a character called Greta in the third season episodes of ABC's Lost, "Greatest Hits" and "Through the Looking Glass"

In 2008, she starred on the Lifetime movie The Double Life of Eleanor Kendall, in which she played Nellie, a divorcee whose identity has been stolen.

In June 2008, she starred in the CBS summer series Swingtown as Trina Decker, a woman who is part of a swinging couple.

She was also part of the American TV-series Prison Break, she played an agent for the company.

In 2010, Parrilla starred in the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced Miami Medical on CBS, which had a short run towards the end of the 2009-10 television season before being canceled in July 2010. From 2010 to 2011 she made ​​many guest appearances of TV shows, such as Covert Affairs, Medium, The Defenders and Chase.

Parrilla stars as The Evil Queen/Regina Mills in the ABC adventure fantasy television series, Once Upon a Time, which debuted in October 2011.

Filmography

Film Year Title Role Notes

2000 Very Mean Men Teresa
Spiders Marci Eyre
2001 Replicant Marci uncredited
2003 Frozen Stars Lisa Vasquez
2005 One Last Ride Antoinette
2008 The Double Life of Eleanor Kendall Nellie
Television Year Title Role Notes
1999 Grown Ups Waitress 2 episodes
2000–2001 Spin City Angie Ordonez 21 episodes; Main cast
2002 JAG Lt. Stephanie Donato 1 episode
The Shield Sedona Tellez 1 episode
2002-2003 Boomtown Teresa Ortiz 24 episodes; Main cast

Imagen Award for Best Supporting Actress
2004 NYPD Blue Officer Janet Grafton 3 episodes
Six Feet Under Maile 2 episodes
2005 24 Sarah Gavin 12 episodes; Recurring, later bumped up to Main cast
2006 Windfall Nina Schaefer 13 episodes; Main cast
Lost Greta 2 episodes
2008 Swingtown Trina Decker 13 episodes

Nominated - ALMA Awards for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Television Series
2010 Miami Medical Dr. Eva Zambrano 13 episodes; Main cast
Covert Affairs Julia Suarez 1 episode
Medium Lydia Halstrom 1 episode
The Defenders Betty 1 episode
2011 Chase Isabella 1 episode
2011–present Once Upon a Time The Evil Queen/Regina Mills TV series; Main cast

Nominated - Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress on Television