Parisa Fitz-Henley

Parisa Fitz-Henley is a Jamaican-American actress who currently portrays Fiji Cavanaugh in NBC's Midnight, Texas. She has appeared in several films and television series, mostly small roles, such as ABC's Grey's Anatomy and Netflix's House of Cards.

Biography[]

Fitz-Henley has enjoyed a vibrant career in TV, film and theater. Most recently she starred as Meghan Markle in Lifetime's "Harry & Meghan: A Royal Romance." Fitz-Henley recurred as the mysterious Reva Connors on the Netflix series “Marvel’s Jessica Jones” and reprised that role on the Netflix series "Luke Cage."

Fitz-Henley's roles in indie films "Lola Versus" and "Bluebird," as well as commercial films "The Jane Austin Book Club" and "The Sorcerer’s Apprentice," helped to cultivate her versatility.

In 2017, Fitz-Henley joined fellow singer-songwriter Paul Freeman to form the band Would Be Royals. They are currently working on their first album together.^[4]

Filmography[]

Film[]

Even Money (2006)
Fist in the Eye (2006)
The Jane Austen Book Club (2007)
Alpha Males Experiment (2009)
Post Grad (2009)
The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010)
Lola Versus (2012)
Places (2012)
Bluebird (2013)
Only Human (2014)
Jack of the Red Hearts (2015)
People (2015)
Last Night, Los Angeles (2016)
Things (2017)
Harry & Meghan: A Royal Romance (2018)

Television[]

CSI: NY (2006)
The Unit (2006)
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (2006)
Grey's Anatomy (2007)
Private Practice (2007)
Blue Bloods (2012)
Golden Boy (2013)
House of Cards (2014)
The Mysteries of Laura (2014)
Redheads Anonymous (2015)
Jessica Jones (2015)
Bite Me (2016)
Luke Cage (2016)
Midnight, Texas (2017–Present)

Trivia[]

According to Dylan Bruce, the casting production auditioned 30,000 actresses for the role of Fiji Cavanaugh before choosing Parisa.^[5]
Parisa describes Fiji:^[6]
- She comes from a line of witches, but not everybody in her family picked that up and not everybody in her family was able to embrace that either so that meant she grew up feeling like an outsider even in her home. She has an aunt from... who lived in Midnight who was able to take her under her wing and guide her, you see that in the books. So this is how she became the witch that she is and she feels very much like a caretaker in the town... she is driven by love and a soulful person. Fiji lives beneath her potential, i.e. being "safe" within her life.
Parisa is allergic to cats, though she and the cat "Mr. Snuggly" filmed together.^[6]
- At one point, in order to get the cat to stay with her within her arms, animal handlers had to embed four different kinds of wet cat food into her sweater: i.e. tuna, puree giblets, anchovy paste and cat food.
- Parisa is thankful for Claritin.
Midnight, Texas is about "diversity and community" and how they deal with that.^[6]
- This diversity is expressed in several ways such as many of the relationships are between a supernatural and a "normal"; a field-day of diversity.
She would like to work with Angela Bassett and looked up to her career.^[6]
- Interestingly, they went to the same high school.
- She grew up between Jamaica and Florida; in a small town in Florida called Gulfport, which is she located "within" St. Petersburg.