Recent 'HEDDA' and WEEDS Star Mary-Louise Parker Talks Children and Family To PEOPLE

Mary-Louise Parker, star of Roundabout Theatre Company's recent HEDDA GABLER, and the current star of the Showtime series "Weeds" speaks to PEOPLE about children, family and the joy of adoption.

Mary-Louise Parker tells PEOPLE that as a little girl she would dream that one day, when old enough, she would adopt.

"I would daydream about it all the time," the Emmy-nominated star of Weeds, now in its fifth season, tells PEOPLE - speaking for the first time about the subject - earlier this summer at a benefit for Worldwide Orphans Foundation hosted by La Perla in Beverly Hills. "I thought about the fact that there were children who didn't have anything, and I felt like I could help. It was something that weighed on me."

In August of 2007, Parker, already a single mom with William Atticus, her son with former boyfriend actor Billy Crudup, made her childhood dream a reality when she went to Africa with Worldwide Orphans and made Caroline Aberash, whom she calls Ash, a part of her family. "It was something I did for the world and for my son and then for me," Parker, 44, said of adding a second child to her family. "And when I say the world, I also mean my daughter. Once I knew her, she became part of that." To read the full article click here.

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) presented Tony® award winner Mary-Louise Parker (Hedda Gabler), Tony® award winner Michael Cerveris (Jorgen Tesman), Paul Sparks (Ejlert Lovborg) and Peter Stormare (Judge Brack) in a new Broadway production of Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen. The production featured a new adaptation by Christopher Shinn and was directed by Ian Rickson. The cast also included Lois Markle (Berte), Ana Reeder (Mrs. Thea Elvsted) and Helen Carey (Miss Juliane Tesman). Hedda Gabler played a limited engagement through March 29th, 2009 at the American Airlines Theatre on Broadway (227 West 42nd Street).

Mary-Louise Parker (Mrs. Hedda Gabler) on Broadway, other credits Reckless (Tony Nomination); Proof (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics, Drama League, Lucille Lortel, Obie, T. Schreiber, New York Magazine Awards); Prelude to a Kiss (Tony, Drama Desk Nominations; Theatre World, Clarence Derwent Awards); Bus Stop.Off-Broadway: Dead Man's Cell Phone; How I Learned to Drive (Obie, Lucille Lortel Awards; Outer Critics Circle Nomination); Communicating Doors; Four Dogs and a Bone; The Art of Success; Babylon Gardens; Co-founder: Edge Theater.Film: The Spiderwick Chronicles; The Assassination of Jesse James; Fried Green Tomatoes; Grand Canyon; Boys on the Side; The Client; Naked in New York; Bullets Over Broadway; Longtime Companion; Pipe Dream; Red Dragon; Romance and Cigarettes; Saved!; The Five Senses (Genie Nomination); and others.TV: Golden Globe, SAG, and two-time Emmy Nominee for "Weeds" for which she won a Golden Globe, Satellite Award; "Angels in America" (Golden Globe, Emmy Awards, SAG Nomination); "Robber Bride" (Emmy Nomination; Gemini Award); "The West Wing" (Emmy Nomination); "Sugartime"; " A Place for Annie"; "Saint Maybe" and others. Her work is archived at Boston University.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.