Background

Ethnicity: Parker is of Ashkenazi Jewish, German, some French and English descent. Parker's father, a native of Brooklyn, is Jewish (from a family from Eastern Europe); his family's original surname was "Bar-Kahn" ("son of Kohen"). Parker's mother is of German, and some English, descent; through her mother, Parker is descended from Esther Elwell, one of the accused during the Salem witch trials.

Sarah Jessica Parker was born on March 25, 1965, in Nelsonville, Ohio to Stephen, an aspiring writer, and nursery school teacher Barbara. She was one of a total of eight children from her parents' marriage and her mother's second marriage; her full siblings include actors Timothy Britten Parker and Pippin Parker. Her parents divorced while Sarah was a baby and she and her three siblings were brought up by their mum. When Sarah was three Barbara married for the second time, to the man Sarah Jessica Parker now calls her father - lorry driver Paul Forste - and four half-siblings followed.

Sarah Jessica Parker helped support the family at a young age, bringing home paychecks from early dancing and singing gigs. Financially times were hard, but while her childhood was materially straightened it was culturally rich. "We didn't have much money, but my mother was really industrious and intrepid about finding out what was available. So we went early to the theatre and the ballet and the opera, because it was either free for children or very affordable," she recalls.

Education

Sarah Jessica Parker took ballet and acting classes as a child, and at age 11 she moved with her family to New York City so that she and her siblings could pursue careers in entertainment. Parker attended the Dwight Morrow High School. During her teens, she attended the Professional Children's School in Manhattan and the American Ballet Theatre School, going on to tour with four of her siblings in The Sound Of Music. She also attended the School for Creative and Performing Arts and the Hollywood High School in Los Angeles and studied drama at HB Studio in Greenwich Village in New York City.

Career

As a child, Sarah's focus was on art. She studied ballet and acting and appeared in many performances. At the age of eight, she landed a small role on NBC's TV adaptation of The Little Match Girl. When she and her brother were cast in the Broadway play The Innocents in 1976, the whole family picked up and moved to New York City to support the children's new profession. In 1978 she landed the lead role in Broadway’s Annie. Sarah was in Annie from age 12 to 14 and then kept right on working. In the process, she chose to give up ballet. Parker won another big break in 1982 when she was cast as one of the leads in the high school-set sitcom Square Pegs. The show aired for 20 episodes from September 1982 to March 1983.

Effortlessly making the often difficult leap from child star to an adult performer, Parker won several supporting roles in movies such as supporting role in the 1984 hit Footloose, followed by the main part in Girls Just Want To Have Fun in 1985. Her success in both films paved the way for steady work, both on the big screen and on TV with such shows as Equal Justice, through the rest of the decade.

While Sarah Jessica Parker was making a name for herself on the silver screen in the early Nineties with LA Story alongside Steve Martin and Honeymoon In Vegas opposite Nicholas Cage, she was also picking up rave reviews for her theatre work in the off-Broadway production Sylvia and the Tony Award-nominated Once Upon A Mattress. The mid-1990s saw Parker in a handful of middle-of-the-road supporting roles, including Miami Rhapsody (1995), The First Wives Club and Mars Attacks! (both released in 1996).

In 1997 Parker was sent a script for a new series - Sex And The City - based on the novel by Candace Bushnell about the friendship and sex lives of four single, working women in New York. The show became a huge hit among both critics and viewers. The role of the couture and shoe-obsessed Carrie propelled her to fame. Her outfits, put together by Patricia Field, inspired thousands of column inches of their own and she became a Vogue cover-girl. She is even credited for making shoe maestro Manolo Blahnik famous in America. Parker won multiple Golden Globe awards for her work on the show in the early 2000s, earning her both steady employment and praise from the fashion world. The series was made into an original film by the same name in 2008, and its success led to a sequel in 2010.

After Sex and the City ended in 2004, Parker starred in such movies as The Family Stone (2005) and the romantic comedy Failure to Launch (2006).

In late 2005, Parker reunited with First Wives Club co-star Diane Keaton for her first film in years, the seasonal family dramedy The Family Stone, in which she played an uptight, contemporary New York City career woman. James Berardinelli, in his review, wrote: "The talented cast helps. Sarah Jessica Parker, finding that there is life after Sex in the City, has no difficulty with [her role]'s arc. Of all the characters in the movie, she undergoes the biggest transformation, and Parker aces it". Budgeted at US$18 million, it was a commercial success, grossing over US$92 million worldwide. For her role, she received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress - Comedy. Her next film was the romantic comedy Failure to Launch, starring Matthew McConaughey as an interventionist hired to get a 35-year-old man out of the home of his parents. It was released on March 10, 2006, and opened atop in the North American box office, grossing over US$24 million on its opening weekend, despite mediocre reviews. Her work as a producer continued with her next starring vehicle, the independent drama Spinning into Butter (2007), based on the Rebecca Gilman play. The film Smart People (2008) premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and saw Parker portray a sympathetic doctor, opposite Dennis Quaid and Ellen Page.

Following the end of Sex and the City, rumors of a film version circulated, until preparations for production were resumed in 2007, and the film was released on May 30, 2008. A sequel Sex and the City 2, was released in 2010. Despite lukewarm critical responses, both films were commercially successful. In the interim, Parker teamed up with Hugh Grant for the romantic comedy Did You Hear About the Morgans? (2009), playing a recently separated New York power couple on the verge of divorce until they witness the murder of a man. In 2011, Parker starred in I Don't Know How She Does It, and also made part of a large ensemble cast in Garry Marshall's romantic comedy New Year's Eve (2011), which made US$142 million worldwide.

Parker guest-starred on season 4 of FOX musical comedy series Glee as Isabelle Wright, a Vogue executive who takes Kurt Hummel under her wing after he graduates and moves to New York. In 2013, Parker provided her voice for one of the characters of the animated film Escape from Planet Earth and played Gloria Steinem in deleted scenes of the biographical drama Lovelace. In 2015, she starred in the independent romantic comedy All Roads Lead to Rome, as an American journalist revisiting Italy with her rebellious daughter.

In 2016 Parker served as the executive producer and starred in the HBO comedy Divorce. She received a Golden Globe nomination for her portrayal of Frances Dufresne, an executive recruiter who is going through a divorce from her husband of 17 years, who is played by Thomas Haden Church. The show also features Molly Shannon and Talia Balsam.

Thanks to her Sex and the City days, Parker transformed herself into a style icon with immense commercial appeal. In 2003 she became the spokesperson for Garnier hair products. The following year, she signed a $38 million deal with the Gap and became the Council of Fashion Designers of America's "Fashion Icon of the Year." In 2005 Parker debuted her first perfume, Lovely. She later added Covet to her fragrance line, which she sells through her company SJP Beauty. In 2007, she launched her own fashion line, Bitten, in partnership with Steve & Barry’s. Parker also has her own line of shoes, launched in 2014, called the SJP Collection. In 2015, she became the spokesmodel for Jordache Jeans.

Parker runs her own production company, Pretty Matches, which has been creating content for HBO and other channels since 2009. She founded the company in 2005 with Alison Benson, following an introduction to Benson, from her agent Kevin Huvane, and through it, she has produced the series Divorce (2016-present) and the film Here and Now (2018). The goal of the company is to produce more professional opportunities for women. Divorce, for instance, has more females than males behind the camera, in both the director's chair and in the writer's room, which is considered a milestone for women in comedy.

An avid reader, Parker launched the book imprint SJP for Hogarth in the 2010s. She served as the editorial director and focused on literary fiction. Her imprint’s first release was Fatima Farheen Mirza’s novel A Place for Us (2018).

Achievements

• 

  Sarah Jessica Parker has won various prestigious awards, such as the Golden Globes Award, the American Comedy Award, the People’s Choice Award, the Academy of Science Fiction Award, the Primetime Emmy Award, and the Satellite Award.
  
  Sarah Jessica Parker was ranked #39 in VH1's list of the "100 Greatest Kid Stars".
  
  Parker has an estimated net worth of $100 million. With an income of $30 million, Parker ranked #2 in Forbes Magazine list of "10 Highest Paid Actress of 2010-2011". She was placed behind Angelina Jolie, who also earned $30 million. However, $18 million of Parker's income was not based on her work in entertainment but gathered by her collaborations with Halston and the best-selling fragrance NYC.
  
  Manolo Blahnik named a shoe in Parker's honor, the SJP.

Works

More photos

• movie

  • Footloose

    (Footloose portrays the timeless struggle between innocent...)

    1984
  • Ryan White Story

    (Ryan White is a teenage hemophiliac who discovers he has ...)

    1989
  • Miami Rhapsody

    (The irresistible Sarah Jessica Parker stars as a recently...)

    1995
  • L.A. Story

    (With the help of a talking freeway billboard, a "wacky we...)

    1991
  • All Roads Lead to Rome

    (Maggie (Sarah Jessica Parker) and her handsome ex-boyfrie...)

    2016
  • The Family Stone

    (Chaos reigns when a son, intent on proposing to his uptig...)

    2005
  • Escape From Planet Earth

    (When a hero astronaut from the blue-alien planet Baab (Br...)

    2013
  • Dudley Do-Right

    (When Snidely Whiplash launches a scheme to take over the ...)

    1999
  • Girls Just Want to Have Fun

    (Sarah Jessica Parker, Helen Hunt and Shannen Doherty star...)

    1985
  • Mars Attacks!

    (Superstar Jack Nicholson as the President of the United S...)

    1996
  • If Lucy Fell

    (If Lucy Fell is a romantic free-for-all starring Sarah Je...)

    1996
  • Hocus Pocus

    (You're in for a devil of a time when three outlandishly w...)

    1993
  • Extreme Measures

    (Hugh Grant and Gene Hackman square off in a bristling thr...)

    1996
  • I Don't Know How She Does It

    (Kate Reddy (Sarah Jessica Parker) manages the ultimate ba...)

    2011
  • New Year's Eve

    ("New Year's Eve" celebrates love, hope, forgiveness, seco...)

    2011
  • Honeymoon in Vegas

    (On her deathbed, a mother makes her son promise never to ...)

    1992
  • Sex and the City

    (The continuing adventures of Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte,...)

    2000
  • Ed Wood

    (Laughs are large when a director refuses to let unfinishe...)

    1994
  • The First Wives Club

    (Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton portray mid-li...)

    1996
  • Did You Hear About the Morgans?

    (Two successful New Yorkers, Paul (Grant) and Meryl (Parke...)

    2009
  • Failure to Launch

    (A thirty something slacker suspects his parents of settin...)

    2006
  • Lovelace

    (Amanda Seyfried is Linda Lovelace in this true story abou...)

    2013
  • Firstborn

    (Touching drama involving a single mother of two boys who ...)

    1984
  • Striking Distance

    (Bruce Willis stars as a maverick cop who is ready to rock...)

    1993
  • State and Main

    (A movie crew invades a small town whose residents are all...)

    2000
  • Spinning into Butter

    (A vicious hate crime at an elite New England college thru...)

    2007
  • Sex and the City 2

    (It's off to the exotic desert locale of Abu Dhabi for Car...)

    2010
  • Smart People

    (Into the life of a widowed professor comes a new love and...)

    2008
  • Here And Now

    (Vivienne (Sarah Jessica Parker), is an established singer...)

    2018
  • Life Without Dick

    (A woman falls in love with the hitman who was hired by he...)

    2001
  • Flight of The Navigator

    (A boy is destined for an extraordinary adventure aboard a...)

    1986

• TV series

  • Square Pegs

    (For "square pegs" Patty Greene (Sarah Jessica Parker) and...)

    1982
  • Sex and the City

    (Carrie Bradshaw and friends Samantha, Miranda, and Charlo...)

    1998
  • Divorce

    (Sarah Jessica Parker and Thomas Haden Church try to keep ...)

Religion

Parker has identified culturally with her father's religion, Judaism, although she has had no religious training. She married her husband, actor Matthew Broderick whose mother was Jewish, in a synagogue. But the wedding was non-religious and officiated by Broderick’s sister, an Episcopalian minister.

Parker's wedding is representative of how Parker feels about her faith. She strongly identifies with the culture of Judaism, but called herself uneducated about the religion, and, as of an interview in 2002, was conflicted about how she wanted to present religion to her children. She considered the Unitarian route: "Sometimes I think there’s something attractive about Unitarianism. It’s a little bit more progressive and philosophical. If I could apply that kind of approach - what I understand it to be - to being a Jew, that might feel right."

Politics

Parker is liberal about most things and is a huge supporter of Barack Obama. She hosted a fundraiser at her house in New York City which raised $2 million at $40,000 a pop for the President’s re-election campaign in 2012. She also appeared in a television ad in which she encouraged viewers to make a donation to the campaign in order to be entered into a raffle to have dinner with her and the Obamas.

Views

Sarah Jessica Parker was appointed UNICEF Ambassador in 1997 and has since shown her support in a variety of ways, most notably as a dedicated supporter of Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF, where she served as the national spokesperson in 1998, 2003 and 2006.

Stemming from her experience Trick-or-Treating for UNICEF as a child, Sarah Jessica has remained an active supporter of the campaign, most recently donating a signed bathrobe to the 60th Anniversary of Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF Charity Buzz auction - which helped contribute to the $11,620 raised from the auction for the campaign. She has further shown her commitment to the world’s most vulnerable children by actively participating in numerous UNICEF campaigns. From lighting the UNICEF Snowflake in New York City in November 2004 to launching the UNICEF Tap Project as the first National Spokesperson for the campaign in March 2007, Sarah Jessica has distinguished herself as one of UNICEF’s most devoted Ambassadors.

Parker took part in America: A Tribute to Heroes charity telethon for victims of 9/11.

Quotations: "Celebrity and the media are reliant on each other - always have been - but we have lost the elegance in that relationship, somehow."

"Fashion is a part of my work. I feel a responsibility to be presentable, to dress up if the occasion calls for it. But, really, fashion does not play that big a role in my life these days."

"One of the things that's great about New York is that it is not a one-industry town. It has education, academia, the service industry, arts, publishing, theater, politics, fashion, finance, as well as movie-making. There are so many people who are cogs in the great wheel of the city that a less bright light is shone on our lives. It still exists - there are always paparazzi at our house - but being a public person feels less like a business than it does in LA. And you have to approach it differently. I can't hide behind gates, or in a car, but if I can get a few yards from my front door, I can still get lost in a crowd. I am always moments, just moments, from obscurity on a crowded street in New York."

'As a woman, I have an inherent need to be all things to all people, to make certain everybody's taken care of. I know I can't sustain that level all the time, so I'm finding the proper balance and it's made me infinitely happier."

"People should dress the way they want. If you walk out the door feeling good about yourself, that's what counts."

Personality

Sarah Jessica Parker admits to being quite prudish and clean-living. Even as a teenager, she never rebelled and was very straight-laced; she once went to a party and was so shocked by the amount of alcohol that was there that she made her father take her home straight home. She even had reservations about Sex and the City when she first read its script owing to its explicit content. However, once she signed up for it, she was dedicated to the show and is proud of its success.

Despite playing the lead in a TV series about sexual relationships, Sarah Jessica Parker has always had a no-nudity clause in her contract. She has never done nude scenes in anything she has ever done and is always careful to take work that does not embarrass any of her family members.

In Hocus Pocus (1993), Sarah Jessica Parker played a witch who was executed during the Salem Witch Trials in the late 1600s. While researching her family history for the show Who Do You Think You Are? (2010), Parker was shocked to discover that her 10th great-grandmother Esther Elwell was arrested in Salem in the late 1600s for committing "sundry acts of witchcraft" and choking a neighbor to death. Esther's case never went to court, she escaped with her life and the accusation ended the Salem Witch Trials.

Parker grew up having to share clothes with siblings and having only one or two pairs of shoes for the entire year. She developed a "shoe fetish" that was also shared by her character on Sex and the City (1998). Parker admitted that she has a closet at her home just for her footwear.

Physical Characteristics: Sarah Jessica Parker has an athletic build, a height of 5 ft 3 in or 160 cm, and a weight of 56 kg or 123.5 pounds. She has blond curly hair and blue eyes.

Quotes from others about the person

• "She's a pretty famous person, but when you're around her you don't feel that. Her priorities are in order. Friends and family and her husband - those things mean a lot to her." - Philip Seymour Hoffman

Interests

• crosswords, knitting, reading

• Politicians

  Barack Obama

• Writers

  Human Acts by Han Kang, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

• Artists

  Lee Krasner

• Sport & Clubs

  swimming

• Music & Bands

  jazz, funk, Parliament

Connections

Parker was romantically involved with actor Robert Downey, Jr. from 1984 until 1991. They met on the set of Firstborn. Downey had a drug problem, which affected their relationship. Parker has said, "I believed I was the person holding him together." She later briefly dated John F. Kennedy Jr.

Parker married actor Matthew Broderick on May 19, 1997, in Manhattan's Lower East Side, in a ceremony officiated by Broderick's sister, Janet Broderick Kraft, an Episcopal priest. The couple had been introduced by one of her brothers at the Naked Angels theater company, where they both performed. The couple married in a civil ceremony in a historic synagogue on the Lower East Side in Manhattan. The couple's son James was born on October 28, 2002. Parker and Broderick's twin daughters Marion and Tabitha were born June 22, 2009, via surrogacy.

As of 2009, she lives in Greenwich Village with her husband and children. They are renovating a “double-wide” they bought on West 11th Street in 2016.

The family also spends considerable time at their second home near Kilcar, a village in County Donegal, Ireland, where Broderick spent summers as a child.

Father:

Stephen Parker

Mother:

Barbara Forste

Spouse:

Matthew Broderick

Parker wore black when she got married to Matthew Broderick in May, 1997. She has said, “I really regret that. I was too embarrassed to get married in white, and both Matthew and I were reluctant to have people pay so much attention to us. Which is ridiculous, because that’s when you can relish the attention, when it’s natural.”

step-father:

Paul Forste

Brother:

Pippin Parker

Brother:

Timothy Britten Parker

Sister:

Rachel Parker

half-sister:

Megan Forste

half-sister:

Allegra Forste

Half-brother:

Aaron D. Forste

Half-brother:

Andrew Forste

Son:

James Wilkie Broderick

Daughter:

Marion Loretta Elwell Broderick

Daughter:

Tabitha Hodge Broderick

ex-boyfriend:

Robert Downey Jr.

Parker dated Robert Downey Jr. for seven years during his destructive drug-fueled days. Robert admitted to Parade Magazine that he, “was so selfish.”

ex-boyfriend:

John F. Kennedy Jr

colleague:

Kevin Bacon

Friend:

Barack Obama

References

• Sarah Jessica Parker
  2008