Sarah Jessica Parker

Sarah Jessica Parker was born in Nelsonville, Ohio, the daughter of Barbara Parker (née Keck), a nursery-school operator and teacher, and Stephen Parker, an entrepreneur and journalist. She was one of a total of eight children from her parents' marriage and her mother's second marriage; her full siblings include actors Timothy Britten Parker and Pippin Parker. Parker's parents divorced when she was 3½ years old, and her mother married Paul Forste, a truck driver and account executive. Stephen, a native of Brooklyn, is Jewish (from a family from Eastern Europe) and his family's original surname was "Bar-Kahn" ("son of Kohen"). Barbara is of German, and some English, descent.

Parker has identified as culturally Jewish, like her father, although she has had no religious training. Her parents struggled to support their large family – often the electricity could be shut off, or the family would have to forgo Christmases and birthdays for lack of money. She has stated: "I wouldn't change any of it, for anything ... for the most part, we had everything we needed. Not always, but for the most part." Her mother immersed her children in culture and extracurricular activities. She often took them to free public institutions like the ballet and the theater in Cincinnati, so that they lived "full, rich lives", emulating the New York artistic scene.

As a young girl, Parker trained in singing and ballet, and was soon cast in the Broadway revival of William Archibald's play The Innocents. Her family moved to Cincinnati and then to Dobbs Ferry, New York, near New York City, so that she could get specialized training. There, her mother and stepfather helped her develop her acting career. In 1977, the family moved to the newly opened planned community on Roosevelt Island, in the East River between Manhattan and Queens, then to Manhattan. They later moved to Englewood, New Jersey, where she attended Dwight Morrow High School.

Parker attended the School of American Ballet in New York City, the New York Professional Children's School, the School for Creative and Performing Arts in Cincinnati, and Hollywood High School in Los Angeles.