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“I’m good leaving the boys’ club, and I’m hopeful for the future. I just look at this time as something that I went through. I didn’t understand it while I was going through it, but…. You can’t always get back what you lost, but if you made it through, right now is a breathtaking time to watch the old structures fall, allowing the new life to rise.” Actress Grace Park may have made a heavily publicized exit from the CBS show Hawaii Five-0 under less-than-desirable circumstances, but she kept her chin up and moved on to new and exciting things, including a lead role on the star-studded series, A Million Little Things. 

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Grace Park started her career on a Canadian soap opera and went on to become a successful star on multiple celebrated television shows. Here’s a closer look at her where she’s been and where she’s headed.

From Canada to Deep Space

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Grace Park was born in Los Angeles, California to Korean parents. Her family moved to Canada shortly before her second birthday, and she was raised in Vancouver. She received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of British Columbia. While Park had previously done some modeling, it wasn’t until after she completely college that she decided to spend a year trying to break into acting. 

The risk paid off. After small parts in television shows including The Outer Limits, Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction, Secret Agent Man, The Immortal, Dead Last, Dark Angel, and Stargate SG-1, she got her first big break with the role of high school student Shannon Ng on the Canadian teen soap, Edgemont, in 2000. The show lasted 70 episodes, and Park appeared in all of them.

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After Edgemont, Park landed two television movies, L.A. Law: The Movie and Jinnah: On Crime -- White Knight, Black Widow, before hitting it big again with the part that would make her face a familiar one in households all over the world: Lt. Sharon “Boomer” Valerii and Lt. Sharon “Athena” Agathon” on the 2003 miniseries Battlestar Galactica. A year later, Park reprised the role on the hit series Battlestar Galactica, which ran from 2004 to 2009 and  today remains one of Syfy’s highest-rated programs ever. Park also appeared in the Battlestar Galactica movies: Battlestar Galactica: Razor and Battlestar Galactica: The Plan. 

Park later said of Battlestar Galactica's appeal, “Whatever you want to see or whatever you’re struggling with in life, you can see it there, whether it be politics or terrorism or war, hope, faith, struggle, love. It’s all in there. Or if you want plain action and neck-snapping plot twists, you’ve got that, too.” 

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For her work on the show, Park was nominated for an AZN Asian Excellence Award in the Outstanding Supporting Actress category. She also co-hosted the broadcast on AZN with her future Hawaii Five-0 costar Daniel Dae Kim. 

Beyond Battlestar Galactica

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Speaking of Daniel Dae Kim, Park wasn’t done starring in remakes of classic shows yet. After appearances on television shows including CSI, The Cleaner, The Border, Human Target, American Dad!, and MacGyver, she got her next big break with the role of Kono Kalakaua on Hawaii Five-0 alongside Kim, Alex O’Loughlin and Scott Caan. The show was a hit, and ran for nine years. 

At the conclusion of the seventh season, however, Park and Kim left the show after failed salary negotiations -- reportedly because they’d been offered less than their costars and had not negotiated as a unit. This led to increased media coverage over the representation of Asians in Hollywood. Wrote Vanity Fair writer Laura Bradley at the time, “[Park and Kim were] arguably the most prominent actors out of the four when the show launched in 2010….It’s also worth asking why Park and Kim were ever cast in supporting roles in the first place.”

Said Park of the experience, “I’m grateful for the lessons learned, but I chose what was best for my integrity. I know that people are always trying their best, and everyone’s coming from their own backgrounds. Throughout the whole series, I kept trying to see the best in everybody. Would I do it all over again? I wouldn’t be so quick to say yes.… I’m still figuring stuff out.” 

Despite how Hawaii Five-0 ended for Park, she received ample recognition for her work on the series, and was nominated for three Teen Choice Awards. Park’s Hawaii Five-0 days were also accompanied by other accomplishments, with 2010 being an especially big year for the actress. Not only did she receive KoreAm’s Achievement Award for Entertainment, but Park was also ranked 60th in Maxim’s Hot 100 of 2010. She made the Hot 100 several other years, including 2011, 2006 and 2005.

It’s also interesting to note that not only were Park’s career-making hits remakes of earlier television shows, but on both she played roles that had originally been male but were changed to a woman for the reboot. 

In addition to her television work, Park has also racked up several movie credits, including Romeo Must Die, Fluffy, West 32nd, Run Rabbit Run, and Adventures in Public School. 

Currently, Park is starring in her first regular television role since exiting Hawaii Five-0: the  ABC series A Million Little Things as working mom Katherine.  

Much of Park’s work has had the distinction of enjoying both critical and commercial success, with the latter holding special meaning for the actress. When asked how she feels about being on a show beloved by fans, she told IGN, “Oh, it’s beautiful….To be able to be a part of it, whether you're just witnessing it or not, is really important and it gives an energy to the project because it wouldn't survive without that. We create it and it's good for us, but it's much more when it's seen by other people. And that's the purpose of why we're in this medium.”