Parrilla was born in the Brooklyn borough of New York City in 1977. Her mother, Dolores Dee Azzara, is of Sicilian ancestry and her father was Sam Parrilla (1943–94), a Puerto Rico-born baseball player who played professionally for 11 seasons (1963–73), including with the Major League Philadelphia Phillies as an outfielder for one season (1970). She is also the niece of Candice Azzara, the American Broadway and TV actress.\n', '

Lana studied acting at the Beverly Hills Playhouse in Los Angeles - California.\n', '

In her early career, Parrilla appeared in several movies, including Very Mean Men (2000), Spiders (2000), and Frozen Stars (2003). She made her television debut in 1999, on the UPN sitcom Grown Ups. In 2000, she joined the cast of the ABC comedy series Spin City, playing Angie Ordonez for one season. She left the show in 2001. After that she joined Donnie Wahlberg and Neal McDonough in the short lived crime drama Boomtown, for which she received the Imagen Award for Best Supporting Actress, for her portrayal of Teresa, a paramedic. Initially a success, Boomtown began to struggle, and Parrilla\'s character became a police academy rookie, to tie her more closely to the rest of the show. "Boomtown" was cancelled just two episodes into its second season.\n', '

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