He has appeared in Beyond the Lights, Red Tails, The Secret Life of Bees, The Great Debaters, Arbitrage, Non-Stop, Felon, and Pride.

After a divorce, Parker's mother then married her second husband, Walter Whitford, who was in the United States Air Force and was stationed in Bath, Maine.

[13] 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.

The film stars Michael Paré, Brandon Fobbs, and Wilson Bethel, and was written and directed by Uwe Boll.

[34] 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,[35] Parker plays a 22-year-old Benjamin Chavis.

[37][38] 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.

[39] In 2012, Parker appeared as a World War II squadron commander in Red Tails, a film portraying Tuskegee Airmen.

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.

[40] While Peter Travers of Rolling Stone noted that Parker shone in his role,[41] Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe felt Oyelowo stood out.

[44] 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.

[45] Nonetheless, Ty Burr of The Boston Globe notes that Parker's portrayal of the Harlem native is the only sympathetic character of the film.

[48] 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".

[56][58] 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.

[59] The story was hailed as a well-written believable romance with depth by many critics such as Travers and Ebiri,[60][61] earning an 82% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes.

[65][66] 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.

[79] Union, a rape victim and one of the main stars of The Birth of a Nation, wrote in the Los Angeles Times, "As important and ground-breaking as this film is, I cannot take these allegations lightly.

"[80] Parker chose to deflect questions about his past legal problems while doing press for The Birth of a Nation at the Toronto Film Festival.

[84] In an October 2016 60 Minutes interview, Parker maintained that he was innocent of the crime and that he did not feel guilty about it, but conceded that, from the perspective of a 36-year-old man, he had done something morally wrong.

Noting that the first half of the New York Times review of The Birth of a Nation is taken up with the controversy, this person adds, "No matter what Nate Parker makes, ... this will always be the first paragraph.

"[84] Other industry insiders note that, "unlike [Mel] Gibson — or Roman Polanski or Woody Allen, both accused of sexual assault (Polanski pled guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse) — Parker is just beginning his directing career and has not built up an acclaimed body of work that might encourage some to say they are willing to separate the artist from the art.

[88][89] Following its release, American Skin has received $4 million over a fortnight and finished in the top 10 on FandangoNow, Google Play, and Spectrum's PVOD rental charts.

[94][95] Parker directed 10 episodes of Baselines a web series about a family based in Los Angeles intent on protecting their son, Jamiel Chambers, and his basketball dreams from the dangers of inner-city American life.

[106] In 1999, while a sophomore at Penn State University, Parker and his roommate and wrestling teammate, Jean McGianni Celestin, cowriters on The Birth of a Nation (2016) together, were accused of raping a fellow student.

[112][113][114] She also stated that the two harassed her after she pressed charges and that they hired a private investigator who showed her picture around campus, revealing her identity, which Parker and Celestin denied.

[123][124] After the trial, Parker transferred to and graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 2002, where he was on the wrestling team and received a degree in management science and information systems.

[126] In August 2007, Parker married Sarah DiSanto, a native of Erie, Pennsylvania, whom he met while they were attending Penn State.

[131] Nate Parker is the author of the book Birth of a Nation: Nat Turner and the Making of a Movement in which he writes about the resistance against oppression.