While she is mostly known for her award-winning tenure inOnce Upon A Time,the bestLana Parrillamovies and TV shows reveal an incredibly wide range that suits a whole host of genres. Born in New York in 1977, Lana Parrilla studied acting at LA’s Beverly Hills Playhouse, following in the footsteps of her aunt, character actress Candice Azzara (who appeared in the likes ofCaroline in the CityandWho’s the Boss?).Parrilla’s career began in 1999 with movies likeVery Mean MenandSpidersand the UPN sitcomGrown Ups.
However, while her earlier roles on the big screen didn’t kick-start a prominent career in movies, she had a big break when it came to TV shows when she signed on toABC’s celebrated sitcomSpin Cityin 2000. From there she went on to appear in several short-lived shows, though despite having a run of less-than-stellar luck when it came to signing onto shows that ended up receiving early cancelations, her career didn’t falter.Over the decades, she has come to be regarded as a dependable and versatile presence on both the big and small screen, as the best Lana Parrilla TV shows and movies prove.
10Miami Medical (2010)
Lana Parrilla Played Dr. Eva Zambrano
Miami Medicalmay have only lasted for one season, but it still stands out as one of the best Lana Parrilla TV shows so far - though more because of Parrilla’s performance than the quality of the show itself. The medical drama aired on CBS between April and June 2010, though it unfortunately managed to compete with other shows in the same genre, such asGrey’s AnatomyorHouse M.D.,both of which were at the peak of their popularity at the time.
Still, for all thatMiami Medicalwasn’t a success for CBS, the role of Dr. Eva Zambrano gave Lana Parrilla a chance to further showcase her suitability for drama roles, building on the reputation she’d laid foundations for earlier in her career in shows likeBoomtown.The character was incredibly nuanced too, and Parrilla did a fantastic job at making Zambrano’s frustration at the trajectory of her career incredibly believable. Plus, in retrospect, there are many who believeMiami Medicalwas canceled far too quickly, and each of the 13 episodes remains incredibly gripping thanks to plots like a hotel shooting and mass-casualty explosion at a restaurant.
Atlas
Cast
Atlas is a 2024 Netflix original movie starring Jennifer Lopez as Atlas Shepherd. Atlas, a data analyst who doesn’t trust AI, who sets out to recover a rogue robot. But when things don’t go according to plan, she is forced to trust AI in order to save humanity.
Most of the projects among the best Lana Parrilla movies and TV shows are series made for the small screen, though she has made a handful of appearances in feature films too. Of these, one of the best and most recent is the 2024 Netflix sci-fiAtlas. Starring Jennifer Lopez in the lead role of Atlas Shepherd,Atlasis a tale of rogue AI in the near future with plenty of spectacular sci-fi visuals and intense action sequences.
While she only appears in the opening of the movie and in various flashbacks,Lana Parrilla’sAtlascharacter, Val Shepherd, is incredibly important to the plot. She is the mother of Jennifer Lopez’s character, Atlas Shepherd, and was also integral to the creation of the AI known as Harlan (played by Simu Liu).Atlasmay not be the most notable role of Lana Parrilla’s career so far, but she plays the part incredibly well, and the 2024 Netflix movie hopefully marks a transition for theOnce Upon A Timestar to more high-budget blockbuster movies.
In some ways, Lana Parrilla’s career had a rocky few years during the beginning, as she was a cast member for several shows that were unfortunately canceled after one season. It’s especially unfortunate since the reasons these shows were canceled had nothing to do with the actor herself, with her performances always being a standout despite the various other flaws with the projects. Such is the case with 2006’sWindfall,in which Lana Parrilla played Nina Schaefer.
Windfallwas an NBC drama that only ran for 13 episodes between June and August of 2006. The premise was intriguing too, as it focused on a group of friends and acquaintances in a small town who collectively win $400 million in a lottery. The series then delved into the various dramas and schisms this made within the group and wider community, and Parrilla managed to capture the surprisingly nuanced motivations of her character, Nina Schaefer, incredibly well.She also had some incredible chemistry with co-star Luke Perry, especially during the romance scenes between Schaefer and Perry’s character, Nina’s husband, Peter
7Swingtown (2008)
Lana Parrilla Played Trina Decker
The CBS period-dramaSwingtownmay have been canceled after only 13 episodes, but Lana Parrilla’s performance as Trina Decker is still one worth visiting for fans seeking out her best movies and TV shows. Set in the late 1970s,Swingtownfocused on the Millers, a couple who move to a new area of Chicago and find their neighbors, Parrilla’s Trina Decker and her husband, Tom (Grant Show), have an open marriage and happily self-identify as ‘swingers’.
The show was incredibly steamy in some places, and Parrilla’s performance as Trina showed glimpses of some of the roles she’d take up later in her career, such as Rita Castillo inWhy Women Kill.Swingtownmay not necessarily be the best show overall that Lana Parrilla has been a cast member of, but her performance and character when considered in isolation easily stand as a highlight of her career so far.
The action drama seriesBoomtownmay not be widely remembered, especially since it only ran on NBC for two seasons between 2002 and 2003, but fans of Lana Parrilla know that her time as Teresa Ortiz was a highlight of her career in the 2000s. Not only wasBoomtownone of her first roles as a main cast member on a prime-time TV show, butParrilla also won an Imagen Award for Best Supporting Actress due to just how much her performance shined through - even as part of an ensemble cast that included the likes of Donnie Wahlberg and Neal McDonough.
In many ways,Boomtownfollowed the standard format of many procedural crime shows, but with a twist. Rather than just focusing on law enforcement,Boomtownalso included the perspectives of lawyers, reporters, and paramedics. It was in the latter category that Parrilla’sBoomtowncharacter, Teresa Ortiz, fell, and in retrospect it’s clear how her time on the show paved the way for many of her future roles such as24andMiami Medical.
24
24 follows CTU (Counter-Terrorism Unit) agent Jack Bauer as he contends with various threats to national and international security by any means necessary. With each season comprised of 24 episodes telling Bauer’s story in real-time, 24 brings the action to life one day at a time. Racing against the clock, Bauer is forced to make impossible decisions in the name of public service, bending his personal morals to get the job done.
When it comes to action thrillers created for the small screen, few could match the blockbuster appeal of high budget feature films quite like24,the Kiefer Sutherland-led Fox series that ran from 2001 to 2010 (with a short-lived revival in 2014). Like many of the best Lana Parrilla TV shows, the futureOnce Upon A Timestar didn’t appear throughout the entire run, but thanks to her solid performance she ensured that her time as Sarah Gavin in24season 4 was highly memorable.
Lana Parrilla’s24character Sarah Gavin was an agent with the CTU. However, she was framed by a mole working in the agency, with the government believing she was using her position to steal crucial intelligence. Gavin was promptly tortured in an attempt to gain a confession, and it was these harrowing and tense scenes that allowed Lana Parilla to show just how talented an actor she truly is.To this day, Lana Parrilla has had few roles quite like Sarah Gavin in24,ensuring that her tenure in the fourth season of the show remains a standout in her career.
Spin City
Spin City is a political sitcom centered around Deputy Mayor Mike Flaherty and his eclectic staff as they manage city hall in New York City. The series humorously explores the interplay of personal flaws and professional responsibilities within a team navigating the complexities of urban governance.
When it comes to the best Lana Parilla movies and TV shows, one of the classic roles from her earlier career, and where many undoubtedly still know her from, is the1996-2002 ABC sitcomSpin City.The series was led by Michael J. Fox, who starred as Deputy Mayor of New York Mike Flaherty (a role for which won a Primetime Emmy and three Golden Globes).
Lana Parilla joined the cast ofSpin Cityin 2000, and while she only appeared for a single season, her character Angie Ordonez remains both one of the most memorable of the show and in the actor’s wider career. Ordonez joined alongside the show’s new lead in the final season, Charlie Sheen, and was the assistant of his character Charlie Crawford.The two had great chemistry on-screen - a key reason that many still associate Parilla with the show despiteSpin Citybeing off the air for over two decades.
The Lincoln Lawyer
The Lincoln Lawyer: This legal drama follows Mickey Haller, a Los Angeles defense attorney known for operating from his Lincoln Town Car, as he revives his career after an accident by taking on a high-profile murder case. The series explores challenges within the justice system and Haller’s pursuit of truth.
Lana Parrilla joinedthe cast ofThe Lincoln Lawyerin the show’s highly celebrated second season, which adapted the second book in Michael Connelly’s series,The Fifth Witness.Parrilla plays Lisa Trammel, the accused in the focal case of the show’s second season.While she only appeared in the second season, it still stands as a highlight of Parrilla’s recent appearances, especially as the gritty-yet-quirky legal drama allowed her to showcase a wider range than some of her other appearances.
Why Women Kill
Why Women Kill is a Paramount+ Original series that ran for two seasons. Acting as an anthology series, Why Women Kill follows different women through the decades who dealt with infidelity and other drama in their marriages. The series starred Jack Davenport, Lucy Liu, and Allison Tolman.
The incredibly dark anthology comedyWhy Women Killfeatured an ensemble cast that changed completely between its two seasons, and Lana Parilla’s season 2 role of Rita Castillo makes the CBS series one of her best TV shows so far. As the title suggests,Why Women Killfocuses on various (fictional) murderswhere the perpetrators are all women. While season 1 focused on three separate stories, season 2 covered a single narrative arc.
Lana Parrilla’s Rita was a central character in the second season, the president of an exclusive garden club. She is extremely materialistic and has no shame about the fact she’s patiently awaiting the death of her elderly husband, Carlo, while having an affair with the much younger Harry Jaworski.She’s a character with many layers, and Lana Parrilla plays the part exceptionally well, with her performance arguably being a key reason the narrative ofWhy Women Killseason 2 was so well received.
Once Upon A Time
Once Upon a Time is an adventure fantasy-drama series created for ABC that features fairy tale characters and their Disney incarnations in a modern setting. When Emma Swan and her son Henry accidentally drive into the town of Storybrooke, they soon discover the inhabitants are those from fairy tales, and they have no knowledge of the modern world inhabited by Emma and Henry. Robbed of their pasts and given new identities by the Evil Queen known as Regina, the hope of the town’s residents lie solely in the hands of Emma, who has stronger connections to the town than she knows.
When it comes to the best Lana Parrilla movies and TV shows, her role as Regina Mills/The Evil Queen in the ABC fantasy dramaOnce Upon A Timeis undisputedly her most celebrated appearance. Created by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz,Once Upon A Timetakes many common fairytale charactersand juxtaposes their adventures with the residents of the town of Storybrooke. Like many of the cast, Lana Parrilla has a dual role - in the real world she is Regina Mills, and in the fairytale realm (where the citizens of Storybrooke all come from despite having no memories of their origins), she is the Evil Queen.
The show was a hit in its own right, but Lana Parrilla received an incredible amount of recognition for her role inOnce Upon A Time.She was nominated for multiple awards, including Teen Choice and Saturn Awards, and won both the Teen Choice Award and ALMA awards for TV Actress in the categories of Sci-Fi/Fantasy and Drama respectively. WhileLana Parrillahas a long and successful career, it is undoubtedly her 156 episodes as the eventually-redeemed villain ofOnce Upon A Timethat feature her best and most-celebrated performance to date.
