Canadian actress Molly Parker got her start with a spate of work in Vancouver-lensed TV-movies before earning a reputation for uncompromising and skilled portrayals in edgy independents. A diminutive, fresh-faced brunette with the physical versatility and talent to convincingly portray a myriad of character types, from detestably calculating opportunists to sympathetic lost souls, Parker became an in-demand performer and quickly racked up an impressive list of credits. After an appearance in the sexual abuse-themed 1996 short "Good Things too,” the actress made her feature starring debut playing a necrophiliac funeral home employee in Lynne Stopkewicz's startling drama "Kissed" (1996). She impressed audiences with her unflinching and radiant portrayal of the odd young woman, earned a Genie and kudos from critics worldwide, and played an integral part in making the film more transcendent than exploitative. Parker, already a familiar face for her prolific work in movies filmed in her native Canada and aired on US TV, subsequently made her US film debut in "Bliss" (1997), an art-house favorite starring Terence Stamp and Craig Sheffer. The following year she capably played a complex conspirator who, along with her lover (Aden Young) plans to dupe an ailing wealthy woman (Joely Richardson) in "Under Heaven", Meg Richman's modern-day adaptation of Henry James' "Wings of the Dove.”

Parker's film career took off at the close of the 20th Century, with a great deal of work in independent features that enjoyed 2000 US releases. Her roles in these films included that of a spunky single mother-to-be in Michael Winterbottom's London-set drama "Wonderland" (1999), a socialite paired with a congressional hopeful (Billy Crudup) who cannot put aside visions of his late former girlfriend (Jennifer Connolly) in "Waking the Dead", and the mother of a missing child in the episodic drama "The Five Senses" (1999). Parker's role in the acclaimed, Genie award-winning drama "Sunshine" would garner the actress the most attention though. She played a Hungarian Jew converted to Catholicism, married to the unfaithful main character Adam Sors (Ralph Fiennes) and damned to a concentration camp in Istvan Szabo's gripping, generation-spanning feature.

Although film would become the medium Parker was best known for, her work in television was significant, paving the way for her expanded acting career. Her career began with appearances in the 1991 TV-movies "Silent Motive" (Lifetime) and "My Son Johnny" (CBS). More work followed in 1993, with roles in Fox's gender-bending comedy "Just One of the Girls" and the thriller "The Substitute" (USA Network). In 1993 she made her TV series guest debut on an episode of the ABC sitcom "Jack's Place" before taking higher-profile supporting roles in 1995's fact-based telefilms "Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story" and "Deceived by Trust: A Moment of Truth Movie" (both NBC) as well as "Freefall: Flight 174" (ABC). In 1997, she starred in the thriller "Dean Koontz's 'Intensity'", playing a young woman haunted by the murderer whose crime she witnessed as a child in this two-part ABC miniseries. Following her film success, Parker secured a regular starring role on the acclaimed Canadian TV series "Twitch City" (1998), playing Hope, a woman who moves in with her newly-imprisoned boyfriend's television-obsessed former roommate (series creator and Canadian independent film fixture Don McKellar). Parker showcased her comedic capabilities with a likable turn as a slightly askew straight woman to the show's wacky characters.

Parker then appeared in “Ladies Room” (1999), an offbeat comedy set in various ladies rooms at the theater, ballet and opera where stories and gossip about love, sex and men lead to dire consequences for a millionaire (John Malkovich) whose wife and mistress unexpectedly meet. As a woman crippled by polio in “The War Bride” (2000), Parker added a bitter counterpoint to an otherwise sappy period drama about women dealing with husbands marching off to fight World War II. In “Suspicious River” (2000), she played a motel receptionist in a small Canadian town who offers herself as well as rooms and saves the money for a rainy day, which comes when an attractive man (Callum Keith Rennie) arrives and gives her a chance to change her aimless life.

She next played an architect in “Rare Birds” (2001), an offbeat comedy about a failing restaurant that is saved when rabid birdwatchers flock to Newfoundland after an endangered bird is seen in the area. Parker again played an architect, this time in the dark comedy “Last Wedding” (2001). Another prostitute role was added to the resume with “Center of the World” (2001), an erotic drama with Parker as a stripper who's paid $10,000 to join a dot-com entrepreneur (Peter Sarsgaard) for a weekend in Las Vegas—but only if he follows her strict rules of engagement. Parker returned to television, appearing as a Rabbi in a couple episodes of “Six Feet Under” (HBO, 2001- ), then went back to film with the drama “Pure” (2002), playing a drug-addled mother brought back to health and good standing with the help of her ten-year-old son (Harry Eden).

After playing a troubled woman in the mediocre romantic comedy, “Men With Brooms” (2002), Parker appeared in “Max” (2002) as the elegant wife of a Jewish art teacher (John Cusack) whose discouragement of a young Adolf Hitler (Noah Taylor) may have prevented the struggling painter from channeling his vitriolic energy into art. In “Marion Bridge” (2002), she was a self-destructive woman who returns home to Sydney, Nova Scotia from Toronto because of the failing health of her mother (Marguerite McNeil). After playing a senator’s wife with no penchant for politics in “Iron Jawed Angels” (HBO, 2004), a dramatization of the final push for women’s suffrage in the early 20th century, she joined the cast of the revisionist western series, “Deadwood” (HBO, 2004- ), playing a high-society wife who succumbs to a laudanum addiction, only to kick the habit to run her dead husband’s bonanza claim and raise a young girl left orphaned after a raid by road bandits left her family murdered.

Her role as Alma Garret on “Deadwood” was cut short when HBO announced prior to the start of the third season that the show was effectively canceled—cost and the diverted attention of David Milch towards another HBO series were cited as reasons. Though a deal was tentatively struck between Milch and the cable network to wrap up the series with two two-hour movies, it remained unclear whether or not Parker and the rest of the cast would return to their roles. Meanwhile, a small role buried in the ensemble cast of the independent “Nine Lives” (2005) was followed by a meatier part in Neil LaBute’s much-dismissed remake of the 1973 horror classic, “The Wicker Man” (2006). She then played the ex-wife of private investigator Louis Simo in “Hollywoodland” (2006), a neo-noir biopic about the mysterious suicide of famed “Superman” actor George Reeves.