Once upon a time
once upon a time, lana parrilla, who plays the evil queen and regina mills in the fairytale fantasy series once upon a time (2011-current), was a sweet girl but now she’s scary. “people are afraid of me,” she admits. “some adults, some children. but i think we’ve seen such a human side to this character, they’re more intrigued now. they want to get to know who i am outside of this character, which is cool.”
the performing bug bit lana early. at age three, she was performing fake commercials for her family. by five, she knew that she wanted to act. and at eight, her mom found her practicing how to cry convincingly. it was around the same time that lana started making home videos for her family – “real silly high-concept productions like attack of the killer handkerchief,” she recalls. but she only formally honed her acting skills after high school when she enrolled at prestigious acting centre the beverly hills playhouse. her first tv role was a waitress in the sitcom grown ups (1999-2000) in 1999. she was then cast as a regular in season 5 of spin city (1996-2002) as angie, before playing sarah given in 2005 in the fourth season of 24 (2001-2010). besides acting, the 37-year-old actress is also into sports, “especially outdoor activities”. lana married fiancé fred di blasio last year and is now the proud stepmom to fred’s sons jack, patrick and matt. like regina, she can be a little weird (but not evil). lana and her family tend to get a bit “interesting” on new year’s eve, saying that “we bang pots and pans in the middle of the street”.