In July 2017, Ramirez joined the hit ABC series Once Upon a Time for its softly-rebooted seventh season in a starring role as Cinderella.

[2] In 2023, she began the starring role of Captain Nikki Batista in the Fox crime drama Alert: Missing Persons Unit.

She was discovered by a modeling scout while working in a convenience store at the age of 15, and was offered a small part in a soda commercial.

Later, she decided to pursue acting seriously and studied at the Actor's Workshop in New York City under Flo Greenberg.

[4] Ramirez has appeared in several music videos, including Jay-Z's Streets is Watching (1998), De La Soul's "All Good?"

Ramirez appeared in Wisin & Yandel's music video "Dime Qué Te Pasó", in which she played the main character, the wife and mother of a military man in Iraq who finds out her husband died at war.

In 2012, Ramirez appeared in two films, playing Selena in American Reunion and a bicycle messenger in Premium Rush.

[13][14] Ramirez appeared as the minor character Caridad in the final episodes of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and as Blanca Selgado,[15] a recurring role during season six of The Sopranos.

[3] In July 2017, Ramirez was cast as a series regular in the softly-rebooted final season of Once Upon a Time.