With her stunning brunette beauty and ability to appear simultaneously innocent and seductively mysterious, model/actress and former Miss Italia U.S.A. Marisa Parker has gradually expanded her skills as an actress since her early television roles on Brimstone and Rescue 77 in 1999. Born Marisa Petroro in Elizabeth, NJ, Parker's first national exposure came in the form of a Clear Blue Easy pregnancy television commercial directed by the auteur of the bizarre himself, David Lynch. Soon moving to small roles in television and graduating to feature films with a small role in 1999's A Murder of Crows, the cancer survivor and Kean College alumna would later turn up in such features as the Tomcats and The Learning Curve in 2001. The cover girl for Lilt Perms hair care products at the time, that same year found the actress taking to the stage for an adaptation of playwright Tennessee Williams' Talk to Me Like the Rain and I Will Listen.