Born and raised in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, she began acting in CBC Radio dramas and animated series when she was five years old. As a child she was educated at the private Crofton House School in Vancouver; after moving to Los Angeles she took college correspondence courses in psychology. After several years of work in television, she broke into feature films as a teenager.

She may be best known for playing Marybeth Louise Hutchinson in The Faculty, Daisy Adair in the Showtime series Dead Like Me, and Marie Warner in Season 2 of 24.