Born on July 15, 1977 in Brooklyn, New York, Lana Parilla is an actress best known for her recurring role on the hit series 24 and much more recently the CBS series Swingtown. The daughter of Sam Parilla, professional baseball player for the Philadelphia Phillies way back in the 1970s, she launched her acting career in the year 2000 when she was included in the cast of the Matthew Modine-Martin Landau film Very Mean Men and took the lead in Spiders. Three years later she was cast for a role in the drama Frozen Stars and also appeared in Replicant. Parilla gained recognition when she was cast for Spin City's Angie Ordonez. She stayed with the show for one season and moved on to play a paramedic named Teresa in the 2002 series, Boomtown. She also appeared as a guest star on JAG, NYPD Blue and Six Feet Under.
In 2005, Parilla was cast for the recurring role of Counter Terrorist Unit agent Sarah Gavin in 24. She was shortly written out for unknown reasons, after being promoted to a main cast member. In 2006, Parilla starred in the NBC mid-season series Windfall which reunited her with fellow cast mates Sarah Wynter from 24 and Jason Gedrick from Boomtown. The show was unfortunately cancelled after a season of poor ratings. A year later she appeared as a guest on Lost and signed for a role on the new CBS show, Swingtown.
Parilla’s other screen credits include episodes on JAG, NYPD Blue, Six Feet Under, and the series Windfall with Luke Perry.