Annie Parisse

Anne Marie Cancelmi (born July 31, 1975), known as Annie Parisse, is an American television, film, and theater actress, known for playing Alexandra Borgia in the television drama series Law & Order, a role she played from 2005 until 2006 in 33 episodes. Parisse is also known for her role of Julia Lindsey Snyder on the daytime soap opera As the World Turns and portrayed FBI specialist Debra Parker in the first season of the television suspense thriller The Following. She took her stage name from her great-grandmother and namesake Anna Maria Parisse.

Personal life

Parisse was born in Anchorage, Alaska, the daughter of Louis G. Cancelmi and wife Annette,^[1] and grew up in Mercer Island, King County, Washington, where she attended Mercer Island High School.^[2] She has two brothers, Louis Cancelmi, also an actor, and Michael Cancelmi. She attended Fordham University, where she appeared in numerous productions, including Medea and Antigone, both of which featured her as the lead. Parisse's brother, actor Louis Cancelmi, was married to Elisabeth Waterston, the daughter of Law & Order veteran Sam Waterston, in October 2006.

She is married to actor Paul Sparks with whom she has one son (born in October 2009).^[3]

Career

Parisse guest-starred on shows such as Big Apple, Third Watch, and Friends. She made a 2002 appearance on Law & Order, playing an exotic dancer in law school in the episode "Attorney Client" where she testified against another defendant (a defense attorney) who plotted the murder of his wife.

Before joining Law & Order, Parisse joined the cast of the CBS soap opera As the World Turns as Julia Lindsey Snyder from 1998 to 2001 and returned for a few episodes in 2002. She was later nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series in 2001.

Parisse had a minor role in the 2004 action movie National Treasure, playing the role of Agent Dawes, who was Agent Sadusky's assistant. For the 2005 film Monster-in-Law, she held a supporting role. She also had a role as Jeannie Ashcroft in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.

Parisse quit her role on Law & Order, and she made her final appearance in the May 17, 2006, season finale, in which her character is killed. Starting on March 8, 2007, Parisse starred in a revival of Craig Lucas's Prelude to a Kiss, along with Alan Tudyk and John Mahoney.

Parisse reprised her work in an Off Broadway performance as the title role of Becky Shaw.^[4]

In the 2010 war drama, The Pacific, Parisse took on the role of Marine Sergeant Lena Riggi Basilone, wife of John Basilone, the revered United States Marine Gunnery Sergeant.

In the summer of 2011, Parisse appeared in the New York Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park productions of Measure for Measure and All's Well that Ends Well.

She had guest appearances on CBS' Person of Interest as Kara Stanton, the former partner of Jim Caviezel's character John Reese. In August 2012 Parisse was cast in a regular role on Fox's new series The Following, premiering on January 21, 2013, as an FBI specialist.^[5]

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards and nominations

• 2001 - Nominated for a Daytime Emmy at the Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series for As the World Turns

References

External links

• Annie Parisse at the Internet Movie Database