Biography
Born and raised in the Midwest, actress Paula Jai Parker moved to Washington, D.C., to study at Howard University. After getting her B.A., she went on to become a regular on The Apollo Comedy Hour and Townsend Television on FOX. After proving she could do comedy, she made a dramatic turn on the HBO anthology series
Cosmic Slop. She won a Cable ACE Award for her title role in the segment "Tang," based on the short novel by Chester Himes.
Parker made her feature film debut as
Ice Cube's girlfriend Joi in F. Gary Gray's hit comedy
Friday. After meeting director Rusty Cundieff while doing
Tales From the Hood, she was cast as gold-digging Adina in his urban comedy
Sprung with
Tisha Campbell. She also worked with many of the Wayans brothers on the WB show The Wayans Bros. and the feature film Don't Be a Menace in South Central. Her next few films included the romantic comedy
Woo, starring
Jada Pinkett Smith, and the period drama
Why Do Fools Fall in Love, starring
Halle Berry. In 1999, she joined the cast of the David E. Kelley's
Snoops, a detective drama on ABC starring
Gina Gershon. After the show ended, she provided the voice of Trudy Proud on the animated series
The Proud Family and starred in the ensemble comedy
30 Years to Life with Tracy Morgan. Parker later appeared in
Joel Schumacher's action thriller
Phone Booth and Cheryl Dunye's domestic comedy
My Baby's Daddy. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide