Nicole Ari Parker

Nicole Ari Parker is an actress known for her roles in Soul Food, Boogie Nights and the Sex and the City spinoff And Just Like That. Ari Parker was raised in Baltimore, Maryland, and began acting in local theater productions as a teenager. She attended Roland Park Country School and later graduated from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts with a bachelor’s degree in acting.

Ari Parker began her screen career in the mid-1990s with roles in indie films before gaining early attention for her role in the 1997 drama Boogie Nights. Her breakout came when she starred as attorney Teri Joseph in Showtime’s Soul Food, a role that earned her multiple NAACP Image Award nominations for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series during the show’s five-season run. Her later credits include Reprentence (2013), How It Ends (2018) and Safe Space (2022). She also boasts recurring appearances on shows such as Time After Time and Empire.

In 2021, she signed on to the cast of And Just Like That as Lisa Todd Wexley, acting alongside Sarah Jessica Parker.

Ari Parker was previously wed to Joseph Falasca, but the pair called it quits in 2001. She later married actor Boris Kodjoe in 2005. The couple share daughter Sophie (born in 2005) and son Nicolas (born in 2006).