Acting
Parker, who was working as a computer programmer, was discovered by Los Angeles talent manager Jon Simmons while attending an event in Dallas with a model friend. Simmons had Parker audition and make a tape, and urged him to go to Los Angeles. Parker moved a week later, had Simmons as his agent, and three months later was acting in his first movie.
In 2006, Parker played the male lead in Rome & Jewel, a hip-hop take on Romeo and Juliet that got cancelled and then re-released in 2008. Parker's title character, a modern day Romeo, was a Compton youth. Parker's rap performance in the film earned comparisons to Will Smith from Nathan Lee of The New York Times. In 2007, he had a small role in Pride, about an African American swim team.
In 2007, Parker played the role of Henry Lowe in the Denzel Washington-directed film The Great Debaters. The character was based on the real-life debater Henry Heights, from Wiley College. Parker attended a debate boot camp to make his performance more authentic. He portrayed a multifaceted character. Stephen Holden of The New York Times described Parker's portrayal as having depicted a "handsome, clean-cut youth with a lurking bad-boy streak", while John Clark of the New York Daily News described the role as that of a "silver-tongued orator and ladies' man". Other reviewers also noted the nuances of the character. Parker also performed on the soundtrack. Parker and co-stars Forest Whitaker and Denzel Washington were all nominated for the 2008 NAACP Image Awards in the best supporting actor category, which Denzel Washington won. Parker would develop a continuing relationship with Wiley College.
in 2008, Parker performed in a pair of low-budget movies: Felon and Tunnel Rats. Despite these early light roles, Parker's onscreen charisma and general je ne sais quoi showed, earning Parker comparisons to Paul Newman. In Felon, Parker played a rookie guard dealing with inner turmoil. Parker appeared as Private Jim Lidford in Tunnel Rats, a 2008 German-Canadian war film about tunnel rat soldiers during the Vietnam War. The film stars Michael Paré, Brandon Fobbs, and Wilson Bethel, and was written and directed by Uwe Boll.
In 2008's The Secret Life of Bees, Parker played the good-hearted love interest of Alicia Keys' character. Parker's character has to deal with the challenges of spurned love. The movie was written and directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, and based on the book of the same name by Sue Monk Kidd.
In the 2010 film Blood Done Sign My Name, based on a true story of small-town racial turmoil set against a backdrop of segregation in 1970, Parker plays a 22-year-old Benjamin Chavis. Parker's Chavis was a teacher who had been born into an affluent African-American family and would later become the Executive Director of the N.A.A.C.P. A. O. Scott of The New York Times described Parker as "diffident" and his portrayal as "thoughtful, morally serious". Steven Rea of the Philadelphia Inquirer notes that events in the film move Parker with both "resolve and rage": Roger Ebert described Parker's Chavis as "energized and angered" in one of the two main storylines of the film that started with Chavis leading an economic boycott after an adverse court verdict. Parker's character was upstaged according to Scott and Ebert. However, Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune noted that Parker's portrayal infused dimension into Chavis, whose cousin's death was the subject of the film. Phillips noted that the role showed that with the right choices Parker had the potential to be a big star in the future.
In 2012, Parker appeared as a World War II squadron commander in Red Tails, a film portraying Tuskegee Airmen. Parker's character drinks to cope with the stress of the fighter pilot lifestyle. In the movie, Parker plays Marty "Easy" Julian who commanded the escorts for the World War II bombers in the face of Nazi fighter planes. While Peter Travers of Rolling Stone noted that Parker shone in his role, Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe felt Oyelowo stood out. Although the story is a fictionalization, Bilge Ebiri of New York and Holden note that the relationship between the two is the story's central one. Holden compared Parker's presence to that of Denzel Washington's. In Arbitrage, Parker's talents were underutilized as the son of a chauffeur who gets caught in a murder coverup, according to David Denby of The New Yorker. Nonetheless, Ty Burr of The Boston Globe notes that Parker's portrayal of the Harlem native is the only sympathetic character of the film. Travers notes the role provides Richard Gere's elitist character with his only interactions with a diverse character in the film. Parker's third and final film of 2012 was Spike Lee's Red Hook Summer. Parker played a gang member named Box, whose role was not central to the film progression according to Phillips.
In 2013, he had a supporting role in Ain't Them Bodies Saints that Richard Brody of The New Yorker described as being a bar owner who is among an "enticing array of characters". The role was minor according to Scott.
In a 2014 interview with BET during publicity for the film Beyond the Lights that included Parker and director Gina Prince-Bythewood, Parker stated that in order to "preserve the black man" he would not be willing to act in certain character roles. The video was later taken down and is no longer available. In 2014, Parker also stated he would not take roles, such as gay characters, that he considered to be "emasculating".
Kate Taylor of The Globe and Mail described Parker's performance as a novelist with writer's block in the 2014 film About Alex as one of the more real performances in the film despite the "wrote" feel to the emotional developments. Mike D'Angelo of The A.V. Club also found the crises and conflicts that Parker's character was involved in to be petty. Parker's independent short film #AmeriCan was nominated in the Outstanding Independent Short category at the Black Reel Awards of 2015 and won.
That same year, Parker reunited with Prince-Blythewood, playing the male lead in her film Beyond the Lights. He was nominated for a 2015 Black Reel Award for Best Actor and an Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture. In Parker's role as a police officer moonlighting as a bodyguard, his onscreen chemistry with co-star Gugu Mbatha-Raw was praised by Dana Stevens of Slate. Stevens noted Parker was destined for more substantive performances. The story was hailed as a well-written believable romance with depth by many critics such as Travers and Ebiri, earning an 82% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
In the airplane terrorism mystery film Non-Stop, Parker plays a computer programmer. Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times notes that Parker's talents are well-employed in his supporting role. In Every Secret Thing, Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times found Parker and his detective partner Elizabeth Banks to have been overwhelmed in their roles. Travers also found the detectivework to be uncompelling. Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter found Parker's performance to have had its moments.
Parker played the role of Slim in the 2015 survival film, Eden. The film was directed by Shyam Madiraju, co-produced by Parker, Jaume Collet-Serra and Shyam Madiraju, and stars Ethan Peck, Jessica Lowndes, Diego Boneta, James Remar and Sung Kang.
