diff --git a/package/CHANGELOG b/package/CHANGELOG
index dede22e74a..fd0b869186 100644
--- a/package/CHANGELOG
+++ b/package/CHANGELOG
@@ -60,6 +60,8 @@ Fixes
    DSSP by porting upstream PyDSSP 0.9.1 fix (Issue #4913)
 
 Enhancements
+ * Enables parallelization for analysis.atomicdistances.AtomicDistances
+   (Issue #4662, PR #4822)
  * DSSP uses ``capped_distance`` and ``calc_bonds`` for faster distance
    calculations and supports ``backend`` selection (e.g. ``"distopia"``)
    (PR #5182)
diff --git a/package/MDAnalysis/analysis/atomicdistances.py b/package/MDAnalysis/analysis/atomicdistances.py
index e3709e25e1..ff1e39f526 100644
--- a/package/MDAnalysis/analysis/atomicdistances.py
+++ b/package/MDAnalysis/analysis/atomicdistances.py
@@ -114,7 +114,7 @@
 from MDAnalysis.analysis.results import Results
 
 import logging
-from .base import AnalysisBase
+from .base import AnalysisBase, ResultsGroup
 
 logger = logging.getLogger("MDAnalysis.analysis.atomicdistances")
 
@@ -147,15 +147,27 @@ class AtomicDistances(AnalysisBase):
 
     .. versionadded:: 2.5.0
     .. versionchanged:: 2.11.0
-       Distance data are now made available in :attr:`results.distances` instead
-       of :attr:`results` and :attr:`results` is now a
-       :class:`~MDAnalysis.analysis.results.Results` instance; this fixes an API issue
-       (see `Issue #4819`_) in a *backwards-incompatible* manner.
 
+       *  Distance data are now made available in :attr:`results.distances` instead
+          of :attr:`results` and :attr:`results` is now a
+          :class:`~MDAnalysis.analysis.results.Results` instance; this fixes an API issue
+          (see `Issue #4819`_) in a *backwards-incompatible* manner.
+       *  Enabled **parallel execution** with the ``multiprocessing`` and ``dask``
+          backends; use the new method :meth:`get_supported_backends` to see all
+          supported backends.
     .. _`Issue #4819`: https://github.com/MDAnalysis/mdanalysis/issues/4819
-
     """
 
+    _analysis_algorithm_is_parallelizable = True
+
+    @classmethod
+    def get_supported_backends(cls):
+        return (
+            "serial",
+            "multiprocessing",
+            "dask",
+        )
+
     def __init__(self, ag1, ag2, pbc=True, **kwargs):
         # check ag1 and ag2 have the same number of atoms
         if ag1.atoms.n_atoms != ag2.atoms.n_atoms:
@@ -185,3 +197,10 @@ def _single_frame(self):
         self.results.distances[self._frame_index] = calc_bonds(
             self._ag1.positions, self._ag2.positions, box
         )
+
+    def _get_aggregator(self):
+        return ResultsGroup(
+            lookup={
+                "distances": ResultsGroup.ndarray_vstack,  # Get distances
+            }
+        )
diff --git a/testsuite/MDAnalysisTests/analysis/conftest.py b/testsuite/MDAnalysisTests/analysis/conftest.py
index 7ffe99ef32..9ee3fec76c 100644
--- a/testsuite/MDAnalysisTests/analysis/conftest.py
+++ b/testsuite/MDAnalysisTests/analysis/conftest.py
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@
 from MDAnalysis.analysis.lineardensity import LinearDensity
 from MDAnalysis.analysis.polymer import PersistenceLength
 from MDAnalysis.analysis.rdf import InterRDF, InterRDF_s
+from MDAnalysis.analysis.atomicdistances import AtomicDistances
 from MDAnalysis.lib.util import is_installed
 
 
@@ -217,3 +218,11 @@ def client_InterRDF_s(request):
 @pytest.fixture(scope="module", params=params_for_cls(DistanceMatrix))
 def client_DistanceMatrix(request):
     return request.param
+
+
+# MDAnalysis.analysis.atomicdistances
+
+
+@pytest.fixture(scope="module", params=params_for_cls(AtomicDistances))
+def client_AtomicDistances(request):
+    return request.param
diff --git a/testsuite/MDAnalysisTests/analysis/test_atomicdistances.py b/testsuite/MDAnalysisTests/analysis/test_atomicdistances.py
index 5ed81303fe..90f4964f38 100644
--- a/testsuite/MDAnalysisTests/analysis/test_atomicdistances.py
+++ b/testsuite/MDAnalysisTests/analysis/test_atomicdistances.py
@@ -117,20 +117,28 @@ def test_ad_exceptions(self, ad_ag1, ad_ag3, ad_ag4):
 
     # only need to test that this class correctly applies distance calcs
     # calc_bonds() is tested elsewhere
-    def test_ad_pairwise_dist(self, ad_ag1, ad_ag2, expected_dist):
+    def test_ad_pairwise_dist(
+        self, ad_ag1, ad_ag2, expected_dist, client_AtomicDistances
+    ):
         """Ensure that pairwise distances between atoms are
         correctly calculated without PBCs."""
-        pairwise_no_pbc = ad.AtomicDistances(ad_ag1, ad_ag2, pbc=False).run()
+        pairwise_no_pbc = ad.AtomicDistances(ad_ag1, ad_ag2, pbc=False).run(
+            **client_AtomicDistances
+        )
         actual = pairwise_no_pbc.results
         assert isinstance(actual, Results)
         distances = actual.distances
         # compare with expected values from dist()
         assert_allclose(distances, expected_dist)
 
-    def test_ad_pairwise_dist_pbc(self, ad_ag1, ad_ag2, expected_pbc_dist):
+    def test_ad_pairwise_dist_pbc(
+        self, ad_ag1, ad_ag2, expected_pbc_dist, client_AtomicDistances
+    ):
         """Ensure that pairwise distances between atoms are
         correctly calculated with PBCs."""
-        pairwise_pbc = ad.AtomicDistances(ad_ag1, ad_ag2).run()
+        pairwise_pbc = ad.AtomicDistances(ad_ag1, ad_ag2).run(
+            **client_AtomicDistances
+        )
         actual = pairwise_pbc.results
         assert isinstance(actual, Results)
         distances = actual.distances