"When the script for 'Once' came my way, I had the thought that maybe it will last only a season. But I was willing to take that risk."
— Lana Parrilla on taking the role of Regina Mills on Once Upon a Time.
Lana María Parrilla (born July 15, 1977 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American actress who played roles in Spin City, 24, Windfall, Swingtown and Miami Medical. From 2002-2003, she starred in the critically acclaimed but short-lived crime drama Boomtown (2002).
She is most famous for her role as The Evil Queen/Regina Mills in the ABC series Once Upon a Time, for which she has received critical acclaim.
Candice Azzara is her aunt.
Notable Roles
- Spiders (2000) as Marci Eyre
- Spin City (2000-01) as Angie Ordonez
- JAG (2001) as Lieutenant Stephanie Donato
- The Shield (2002) as Sedona Tellez
- Boomtown (2002-03) as Teresa Ortiz
- NYPD Blue (2004) as Officer Janet Grafton
- Six Feet Under (2004) as Maile
- 24 (2005) as Sarah Gavin
- Lost (2007) as Greta
- Swingtown (2008) as Trina Decker
- Covert Affairs (2010) as Julia Suarez
- Medium (2010) as Lydia Halstrom
- The Defenders (2010) as Betty Johnson
- Once Upon a Time (2011-18) as Regina Mills / The Evil Queen
- The Tax Collector (2020) as Favi
- Why Women Kill (2021) as Rita Castillo
- The Lincoln Lawyer (2023) as Lisa Trammell
Lana Parrilla provides examples of the following tropes:
- Acting for Two: In Once Upon a Time, after Regina and the Evil Queen become separate in Season 5, she portrays both of them in Season 6, often in scenes together.
- Actor-Inspired Heroism: Regina's redemption in Season 2 was partly inspired by Lana pushing for Henry to become her Morality Pet.
- Dawson Casting: Portrays both adult and younger Regina in Once Upon a Time. Young Regina's age is not specified, but it is generally placed at around 18, whereas Parrilla was in her 30s during filming.
- Directed by Cast Member: Directed "Chosen", Season 7 Episode 17, of Once Upon a Time.
- Fake Mixed Race: Her father is Puerto Rican and her mother is Italian, and Lana identifies as Latina. Regina on Once Upon a Time has a Latino father (played by Tony Perez) and white mother (played by Barbara Hershey).
- Friendship on the Set:
- She's close friends with her on-screen sister Rebecca Mader, and her on-screen love interest Sean Maguire. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they held a podcast together.
- She's also very close with her on-screen son Jared S Gilmore, and is considered an Honorary Aunt to him.
- I Am Not Spock: It's safe to say she will be best known as Regina Mills for a long time.
- Important Haircut: She recalls earlier in her career that she had trouble booking roles until she decided to cut her hair to a bob. She found that she was cast a lot more afterwards, including getting her breakout role as Regina Mills.
- Latino Is Brown: She is Latina (of Puerto Rican and Italian descent), but early in her career was turned down in favor of actresses with the mestizo features Hollywood often favors for Latina characters. Even when cast in Once Upon a Time, the creators had to confirm that Regina is Latina like Lana.
- LGBT Fanbase: Lana has a large fanbase of lesbian and bisexual women going all the way back to her role as the Ambiguously Bi Trina Decker on the short-lived Swingtown. This only increased after the airing of Once Upon a Time, where her character, Regina Mills, has loads of Les Yay with nearly every female character on the show, particularly Emma. Lana being very supportive to shippers of Regina/Emma (also known as Swan Queen), has only endeared her more to her LGBT fans, especially in comparison to what many of them felt was her castmates' indifference.
- Promoted to Opening Titles: She initially appeared as a guest star on 24 but got promoted six episodes into her season.
- Star-Making Role: Her role as Regina Mills.
- Typecasting: Her two biggest roles are as a female antagonist known for being both cruel and beautiful who later has a change of heart and learns the error of her ways; plus both characters' names start with "R".
- Underage Casting: She's only two years older than Ginnifer Goodwin and although a short age difference isn't a big deal when she's playing a stepmother, Regina's backstory episode has her as a teenager when Snow White is only ten.
