From a musical and theatrical family on both sides, Kela Parker is a Berkeley-born art-folk original—grounded, offbeat, and quietly magnetic. Whether stitching together unexpected harmonies or bringing a refreshing energy to a scene, she invites people into a new way of seeing rooted in curiosity, play, and an endless hunt for meaning.

Parker’s first love was music, and she followed her passion for pounding away at the piano from Rachmaninoff and Chopin to Thelonious Monk. As a teenager she was also enchanted by the alternate guitar tunings of Joni Mitchell and Jimi Page, establishing her penchant for exploring unusual harmonic relationships. Often caught lip-synching in middle school choir, singing took a while to catch up. But once she finally started pairing her poetry to music she began independently releasing a string of singer-songwriter albums since 2011, starting with 2011’s ‘Houswife,’ followed by ‘Searching & Sewing’ (2013), and ‘The Dreamer & The Dream’ (2018), and ‘Bits & Pieces’ (2026) and ’Hard Spelling’ (2026). Now based in Los Angeles, Parker has taken her experimental songs, arrangements and chamber compositions across the United States, from Portland’s Aladdin Theatre to New York’s Rockwood Music Hall and Los Angeles’ legendary Viper Room. Her unmistakable style creates a distinctive and emotive sound – like someone who talks with their hands instead gesturing with an instrument.

After discovering her love of acting, Parker found that the storytelling she had always loved about songwriting also connected her to scene study and narrative. In film and television, Parker demonstrates a flexible versatility that allows her to adapt seamlessly to a variety of projects and genres, from horror comedy shorts to political melodramas, in both comedic and dramatic roles. Often playing powerful professionals, morally murky women, and darkly comedic characters in indie films, she has also established herself in the booming vertical space. As a voice actor, Parker has voiced characters in animated features including North (dir. Bente Lohne, starring Mads Mikkelsen), and the new animated series Max and the Multiverse (dir. Court Reinland). She is known for bringing personality and life to quirky characters, from angels to dogs and cats to high-strung teachers.

As a producer and writer, Kela started her work in production for an independent documentary film company in Portland, Oregon, and her first job on set in Los Angeles was as location manager for ‘American Horror Story.’ Since then she has worked as a producer and scriptwriter for a variety of media companies, while working on screenwriting projects including a television pilot, a feature length screenplay, and film shorts. Her behind-the-scenes work reflects a deep understanding of storytelling and technical production, and circles back to some of her family’s theatrical roots where actors and songwriters were also stage managers, scene painters, and directors.

Across these different forms, Parker is interested in work that feels emotionally honest and alive—whether she is performing someone else’s story or creating one of her own. At the center of it all is a curiosity about people, stories, and the unexpected ways we can see ourselves in one another.