A native of Brooklyn, Lana's father Sam was a professional baseball player for the Philadelphia Phillies in the 1970s.Lana had roles in a few movies including the Matthew Modine-Martin Landau flick Very Mean Men (2000), the lead role in the unsuccessful Spiders (2000), and the Jean-Claude Van Damme movie Replicant.Lana became noticed in the mainstream when she joined the cast of Spin City in 2000, playing Angie Ordonez for one season. After this, she joined Donnie Wahlberg and Neal McDonough in the 2002 series

Boomtown in which she played Teresa, a paramedic. Initially a success, Boomtown quickly fell in the ratings, and Lana's character became a police academy rookie, so as to tie her more closely to the rest of the show. But the show was cancelled just two episodes into its second season.Lana next guest starred in shows such as JAG, NYPD Blue and Six Feet Under.

In 2005, Lana took a recurring guest role on the fourth season of 24 as Sarah Gavin, a Counter Terrorist Unit agent. After just six episodes, Lana was promoted to a main cast member, but in the thirteenth episode, she was written out for reasons unknown after her character demanded a promotion from temporary head Michelle Dessler (Reiko Aylesworth) which was denied.

From early 2006, Parrilla will be seen on the NBC television series Windfall alongside Luke Perry, former 24 cast member Sarah Wynter, and Parilla's former Boomtown cast mate Jason Gedrick.

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