Background
Parisse was born in Anchorage, Alaska, the daughter of Louis G. Cancelmi and wife Annette, and grew up in Mercer Island, King County, Washington, where she attended Mercer Island High School.
Parisse was born in Anchorage, Alaska, the daughter of Louis G. Cancelmi and wife Annette, and grew up in Mercer Island, King County, Washington, where she attended Mercer Island High School.
She attended Fordham University, where she appeared in numerous productions, including Medea and Antigone, both of which featured her as the lead.
Parisse is also known for her role of Julia Lindsey Snyder on the daytime soap opera As the World Turns and portrayed Federal Bureau of Investigation 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. Before joining Law & Order, Parisse joined the cast of the Columbia Broadcasting System soap opera As the World Turns as Julia Lindsey Snyder from 1998 to 2001 and returned for a few episodes in 2002.
In a 2002 supporting role, she portrayed an incredible demure Jeannie Ashcroft in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.
Parisse also had a minor role in the 2004 action movie National Treasure, playing the role of Agent Dawes, who was Agent Sadusky"s assistant. Foreign the 2005 film Monster-in-Law, she held a supporting role.
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 Office Broadway performance as the title role of Becky Shaw.
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. In August 2012 Parisse was cast in a regular role on Fox"s new series The Following, premiering on January 21, 2013, as an Federal Bureau of Investigation specialist.
Parisse is now appearing in the Home Box Office series Vinyl as Andrea Zito since February 2016.
2001 - Nominated for a Daytime Emmy at the Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series for As the World Turns.