Brooke Elliott

For ten weeks in 1999, she was a member of Chicago-based stage combat theatre company Babes With Blades. As part of that role, she performed a scene from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, The Miracle Worker and Heathers. She left for her first professional theatre role as the Sugar Bowl in the US touring version of Beauty and the Beast. She also appeared as part of the cast in the North American tour of Wicked alongside Adam Lambert, whom she later supported when he appeared on American Idol.

She credits Rosie O'Donnell with getting her first Broadway role alongside Boy George in Taboo. Rosie later described her as "fresh off a Disney Cruise", but allowed her to come back for a second attempt. Elliott spent $117 to change her outfit and make-up in order to be better suited to the role; O'Donnell reimbursed Elliott when she was awarded a part in the show. The show closed after only a hundred performances, but O'Donnell subsequently praised Elliott's passion for the show. Elliott went on to play Majella in The Pirate Queen, which opened in Chicago in 2006 and moved to Broadway in 2007.

Her first film role was in the Mel Gibson film What Women Want in 2000. Her first television role was in an episode of Law & Order: Trial by Jury. In 2009, Elliott was cast as main character Jane Bingum on Lifetime's Drop Dead Diva. Producer Craig Zadan said of Elliott's casting, "We had to find somebody who's a beautiful leading lady, who can do the comedy and drama, and with Brooke, she nailed it". After the pilot, The New York Times described Elliott as "convincing, and even affecting, at every turn", and the Los Angeles Times said she was "a stage actress with fabulous comic timing and enormous dramatic flexibility". Elliott also sings on the soundtrack to the series. The show ended after its sixth season in 2014.

In 2016, Elliott starred opposite Katey Sagal in the CBS comedy pilot Upper Middle Bogan inspired by the Australian series. It was not ordered to series. In 2018, she went to star in the ABC comedy pilot created by Bobby Bowman about a dysfunctional family struggling with mental illness.

In 2019, Elliot was cast in a leading role on the Netflix romantic drama series Sweet Magnolias. In 2022, she executive produced and starred as a country music superstar in the Lifetime holiday movie A Country Christmas Harmony.