Lara Parker was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, and grew up in Memphis. She attended Central High School in Memphis and won a scholarship to Vassar College, where she began a major in Philosophy, which she completed at Southwestern at Memphis, now called Rhodes College, receiving her BA. She attended graduate school at the University of Iowa and completed all course work on a Masters in Speech and Drama. The summer Lara was to write her thesis, she acted at the Millbrook Playhouse in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, where she did five leading roles in six weeks. Rather than return to Iowa, she decided to try her luck in New York City, and, the second week she was there, she was cast as Angelique the witch in the daytime horror serial Dark Shadows (1966), a job she held for five years, culminating in the film, Night of Dark Shadows (1971). While she was in New York, she appeared in a Broadway play, "Woman is My Idea", and two off-Broadway Plays: "Lulu" and "A Gun Play". Lara moved to Los Angeles in 1972 and began working in film and nighttime television, performing many guest roles and occasionally returning to daytime television. After acting, she has been a high school teacher, has written several screenplays and has completed her first novel (see book section below). As of 1999, she lives in California with her husband, Jimmy Hawkins, and daughter.