Nina Parker is a well-known journalist and television personality. I remember the first time I saw Nina Parker. I was lying in bed on a late night and caught an episode of TMZ. A segment came on and I saw this smart, savvy, and very opinionated girl. While her career is impressive, what many find inspiring is her candidness about body image and her journey toward self-acceptance. This article explores Nina Parker's career path, her views on body positivity, and how she navigates the pressures of the entertainment industry.
From Call Center to Center Stage: Launching a Journalism Career
Ever since she was a kid, Nina knew she wanted to be a journalist. She has a degree in journalism. Nina set out on a path to pursue her dreams. Nina was crafting a plan for success as a journalist but hit a wall before she became the Nina Parker we know today. Nina's path wasn't a straight shot to red carpets and television sets. After earning her journalism degree, she found herself working at a Verizon call center.
"Living unhappily for four years while working at the call center made me feel like I wasn’t feeding my spirit at all. I felt like I was living someone else’s life. I felt very depressed. I wasn’t around people who were like minded like me. I felt like I was under serving myself. I knew I was doing it because I felt kind of stuck in this routine. And it really just took my mother to shake the table on me and kind of say what are you settling for? Why are you continuing to live this life that you’re unhappy with, when you have the power to change it. It was something I knew it already but it took her just saying it. So that’s really where I got my strength to leave and try something different. Really, from the conversation with my mother who reminded me about my dreams, goals, and my aspirations. I also remember talking to one of my co-workers, somebody who I worked at Verizon Wireless with and they were getting ready to leave to go to school and I’m like they’re just leaving to go to school and I already got my degree. What am I thinking. What’s going on ."
This realization, coupled with the encouragement from her mother, prompted her to make a significant change. Nina packed her bags, left Sacramento, and moved to Los Angeles to pursue her aspirations.
The TMZ Boot Camp
Her career began at TMZ. My experience was overall pretty good. It was hard. It was one of the hardest places to work at in terms of what they required from me. I wasn’t just doing on camera work. There are some jobs where you can come do your lines and go home. TMZ was just not one of those places. Everybody on camera is an editor, or producer, or writer for the site. They all have had other jobs beyond the camera. For me, it was great as far as what I learned. I was working under Harvey Levin who is an amazing investigative journalist. He just decided to apply everything he learned from law school and from investigative journalism and just put it towards the celebrity world. Which is why they weren’t reporting on weddings, engagements, and baby announcements. I learned a lot under him because it was a new place. So he didn’t have anything set. It was like he was open to new ideas. I worked directly under him. It was very aggressive. It was a really good boot-camp for me especially because I had kind of been out of the industry for awhile and they took a chance on hiring me. For me it was like this is my last chance. I got to make this happen.
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Nina thrived in the fast-paced environment. Probably, the most memorable story that I’ve ever worked on. I was working at TMZ when we broke the Michael Jackson death. When we pressed publish, the world changed after that . I didn’t go home for like two days. I was in the newsroom. I was doing interviews, just kind of immersed in that.
Transitioning to The Insider
After TMZ you went to the Insider. TMZ and Insider are very different shows. The Insider is more about the Oscars, and Golden Globes, and red carpets. It was hard for me to transition there initially, just because I came from a really progressive place that was unorthodox to a place that was more traditional. A company that is a lot older and even the people who worked there were more seasoned. It was definitely a different type of Hollywood that I wasn’t use to. It was weird for me because I had felt like I was pretty seasoned at that point for being 5 years in the game. It was a totally different ball game being at the Insider, being on air talent, you know reading teleprompters, going to events, and doing red carpets. It was challenging, so I really spent a lot of time with Kevin Fraiser who kind of worked as a mentor for me. I was doing voice-overs at that point. It was just a lot. It was overwhelming at times.
Becoming a Host: VH1 and Beyond
It was just something that I didn’t have a doubt that I wanted to do. Really simple actually. I decided it was something I was interested in doing. I had a meeting with someone who knew Mona and asked if they didn’t mind passing on my information to her, and my reel, and they did. It took maybe 4 or 5 months for her to contact me. When you don’t hear back, you just kind of keep it moving. And out of the blue she called me and was like hey do you want to host the reunion. She had a lot of shows going on and she just really needed somebody that she felt like could come in and ask questions and get answers. She was looking for someone with a journalism background. Someone who was also a fan of the show. Which sometimes its hard to find both of those. I’ve noticed that you have basically become kind of the main host now. I know before they had Mo’Nique and different people in and out. I have a lot of experience because I worked in news. I have a lot of patience. I prep a lot and I think I’m pretty easy to work with. Some hosts don’t have any interest in the show that they’re hosting. Some people come in, they do their job, they go home, and they have to be overly prepped by producers and it doesn’t come across authentic to viewers. For me, these are people I have been reporting on on TMZ. So, these are people I had to know about. I had to watch the show for work often. It was a very natural progression for me because I was familiar with a lot of the back story. I think for Mona it was like okay, this is someone who actually is invested. I was nosy myself. I wanted answers myself.
Authenticity and Body Positivity
I was never given a note from anybody that I worked with that was like we want you to look this way or you should do this. They kind of let me do what I want within the scope of being presentable for television. It wasn’t like they told me how to do my hair or lose 15 pounds. I was really valued for my work ethic and for my opinion which I’m blessed to be in that position. I think when people hire me, they know who I am. I’m opinionated. I’m not the girl that you hired in a bandage dress that’s going to read a line. I’m going to give you my opinion. So, I don’t think my expectation was ever like, be this girly girl in a dress and come read these lines. The only pressure really came from outside, you know people watching you.
With social media there’s so much negativity that goes on with looks. I know for me, one of the things that I related to with your look was that you were a curvy girl. I thought it was nice to see that on television. I think I am a part of it to a certain extent just because I am apologetically me and I fluctuate with my weight. I lost 70 lbs when I left TMZ and then last year I moved in with my boyfriend and gained like 25 pounds. You know that happy relationship weight. I am okay. I know I want to be healthier. I want to educate people about nutrition. I do read up on it. I pride myself on learning new things. and sharing that information. So, I definitely do think I’m part of the body positive movement because I don’t think a woman has to look a certain way to be successful or look or do thing’s a certain way to get attention either. I think there are so many women right now who don’t realize how much they really have to offer. They think its all based on likes of a picture of showing off their body. It’s totally fine to indulge that, you just can’t fake that validation from people because its just not real. The public is so fickle. “I support all women, but you know I have love in my heart for curvy women. Unless you’ve been overweight you don’t really know what a challenge that is, especially living in a city like Los Angeles.
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Style and Fashion
I want to shift gears a little bit. Let’s talk a little fashion. I’ve been following your style since you were on TMZ. While laughing, Nina said, “It depends on the weight I am. I don’t feel like I have anything that’s signature. I just kind of do what feels good that day. There’s some days where I feel a little bohemian, there’s some days where I’m like t-shirt and ripped jeans. There’s some days when I’m at Access and its kind of like fly business wear. Some days I’m casual, some days its with the lashes on. I don’t really go off of fads. I go off of what I feel like fits my body type. I feel like not everything is meant for me and I’m okay with that. A spaghetti strap top or dress is not ever going to be for me. I have big boobs. I’m going to look like I’m starring in the next porno if I come through with spaghetti straps. You gotta know whats right for your body type. I love high-waisted pants, wide legs for me, and cropped jackets. That’s something I love to do. I think it elongates my frame. I’m 5’9. I’m a tall girl, so I like things that make me feel like a girl. Sometimes when you’re a tall girl, you feel like a body guard or something. So, I definitely am a girly girl. I like to smell good, look good, I like playing in makeup. I’m kind of all over the place. I like Rachel Roy. I enjoy City Chic. They have a store here in Los Angeles. I’m a big boutique shopper as well. I like some places here in Los Angeles that I’ll go into and find a really fly scarf or accessories. I’m more of a boutique shopper. I’m not a huge mall person. I may go and get some jeans from Target and then pair it with some jewelry and a top from a cute little boutique that I found on Melrose. It just kind of depends. I mix things up.
Advice for Aspiring Journalists
You have so much experience. I would just offer them the cliche of not to give up. It definitely can be a thankless industry. It can be something where you work 3 days to break a story and it breaks and then the next day your boss is like what else you got for me. You’re like damn, I just busted my ass for 72 hours and you already asking me about the next story. That’s the way it goes. After a 24 hour cycle, people move on to the next thing. Don’t have any set hours in your mind, like I only want to work from 8-5. It doesn’t work like that. I’m pretty much working all the time. I’m in meetings. My phone is never off. I’m always working. When I first started, I had a problem with that. I wanted time off. I think it stunted me in my job. I wasn’t always willing. I had to kind of break out of that. Its no days off when you’re needed. You gotta go in and do it because the next person will if you won’t. I had to shake myself of that. Even when you get in your position, you can’t get too comfortable. I’m constantly watching other shows other hosts. I’m constantly looking online and watching up and coming hosts. People probably don’t even know I’m paying attention to them. If you’re just thinking about your current move, then you’re just not expanding your reach enough. Its really just thinking ahead being faithful and truly believing this is the line of work for you and knowing that this is your craft and you’re going to do whatever you can do to cultivate it and make sure and master it. Always feel like you’re a student of what you’re doing. I don’t think there is ever really a cap. Even Oprah is doing new things and transitioning. Now shes directing or she’s creating a show.
Current Projects
Last question. What else can we expect to see from you in 2017? Do you have any up and coming projects? I have the podcast we just launched. Its called “Little Black Dress.” Rocsi and I met on the CBS lot because she was working for Entertainment Tonight and I was at the Insider. They’re both in the same house. We decided to launch this podcast because there’s not a lot of black pod-casters in Los Angeles. There’s definitely not a lot of women of color pod-casters period. We felt like there was a climate for it. We have a lot of contacts between the two of us. We felt like there wasn’t a lot of people who look like us doing that and we wanted to kind of change the scope of things. I’m still with Access Hollywood Live. I tape with them a couple of times a week. I still have my relationship with VH1 and I definitely have some other projects that I am working on.
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