She has appeared in numerous films, including Green Card (1990), Lorenzo's Oil (1992), Philadelphia (1993), Garden State (2004), The Manchurian Candidate (2004), Marley & Me (2008), Compliance (2012), Side Effects (2013), St. Vincent (2014), Captain Fantastic (2016), Hereditary (2018), and Mass (2021).

Her paternal grandfather was James "Kip" Dowd, a former Major League baseball player for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Dowd credits her instructors and roommate at that time for persuading her to forgo medical school and follow her passion for acting.

Dowd traveled to New York City to audition for the Goodman School of Drama at DePaul University in Chicago, where she received an MFA in Acting.

Also in 2004, Dowd played the mother of Natalie Portman's character in Garden State and appeared in The Forgotten starring Julianne Moore.

In the film, Dowd plays Sandra, a fast food restaurant manager caught in a mysterious ethical nightmare.

Other shows include Chicago Hope, The X-Files, Third Watch, NYPD Blue, Judging Amy and Freaks and Geeks, in which she played the mother of Busy Philipps.

In 1995 she portrayed Rose Long, Louisiana's first female senator, in the television movie Kingfish, opposite John Goodman.

In 2017, Dowd began starring as Aunt Lydia Clements on the Hulu series The Handmaid's Tale, for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award.

In 2021, she was cast as Edna Garrett for the third installment of Live in Front of a Studio Audience on ABC, featuring both Diff'rent Strokes and the spin-off The Facts of Life.

In 1993 she received the Clarence Derwent Award for her Broadway debut performance in the play Candida starring Mary Steenburgen.

[15][16] Arancio, who is from New York City, is a writer and acting chair for the CAP21 program who has also taught at the HB Studio and Columbia College Chicago.