Harris began her career as a child actress, with various appearances on television and prominent roles in films such as Marked for Death (1990), Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead (1991), The Last Boy Scout (1991), Free Willy (1993) and Daylight (1996).

[4] While living in Florida during elementary school, Harris won a beauty contest, winning a trip to New York City for ten days.

[8] In 1985, at age seven, Harris was cast in the role of Samantha "Sammi" Garretson in the ABC soap opera One Life to Live[9][10] and stayed on the program for three years.

Her character was considered a "miracle child",[11] extracted as an embryo from the womb of her deceased mother and implanted in a family friend, whom her father later married.

[13] Following her early television work, Harris successfully auditioned for the role of Jamie Lloyd in the fourth edition of the Halloween franchise, beating out several other young actresses, Melissa Joan Hart among them.

[17]Harris returned the following year for the sequel, Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers, which did not perform as well as its predecessor at the box office.

Harris had the role of Darian Hallenbeck in the 1991 action film The Last Boy Scout, alongside Bruce Willis and Damon Wayans.

[27][28] Reviews were mixed, and some critics cited the Christmastime release for such a violent film as a reason for its underwhelming box office.

[citation needed] In 1995, Harris learned that the producers of Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers were looking for an actress over the age of 18 to play the role of Jamie Lloyd.

Only 17 at the time, Harris got emancipated in order to participate, but was dissatisfied with the fate of the character in the script and the low salary offered.

Harris has since admitted to being glad she did not rejoin the series at this point, believing that this allowed her to make her later return in the 2007 remake of the original Halloween.

In 1998, Harris had the lead role of Lulu in the film Dizzyland, where she portrayed a sexually abused teenager, and also appeared in an episode of Diagnosis: Murder.

She portrayed Tosh, a goth girl who is murdered while her roommate Natalie (Alicia Witt) is resting on the other side of the room.

[citation needed] In January 2007, it was announced that Harris was cast as Annie Brackett in the remake of horror landmark Halloween.

[50] The remake, also called Halloween and directed by Rob Zombie, had Scout Taylor-Compton and Malcolm McDowell in main roles.

[51] The film, which cost $15 million to make, opened at #1 at the box office and went on to gross $80,253,908 worldwide,[52] becoming the highest-grossing Halloween in unadjusted U.S. dollars, which it remained for more than a decade.

Unlike in the original version, Annie Brackett survives, after Michael Myers (Tyler Mane) tries his hand at torture instead of killing her quickly.

Harris admits that she refused the offers to cover her body while the cameras were not rolling, to better portray a vulnerable Annie against the monster.

2009 saw her in a leading role in Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet, as Felicia Freeze in the comedic superhero adventure film Super Capers and alongside Robert Patrick in The Black Waters of Echo's Pond.

[55] Fear Clinic, a Fearnet original web series featuring Harris as well as veterans Robert Englund and Kane Hodder, made its debut the week of Halloween 2009.

I found a Teen People magazine with me on the cover of "The New It Girls", and it was me, Jessica Biel, Scarlett Johansson and Kirsten Dunst.

She starred alongside Lance Henriksen, Bill Moseley, AFI's Davey Havok and Nicki Clyne in the illustrated film series Godkiller.

[58][59][60] Further genre credits include Jim Mickle's second feature film,[61] the vampire/post-apocalyptic epic Stake Land,[62] Cyrus: Mind of a Serial Killer, ChromeSkull, Havenhurst and Michael Biehn's The Victim, with lead roles in Shiver, See No Evil 2, Inoperable, Camp Cold Brook and others.

She equally provided the voice and basis for an animated Barbara in Night of the Living Dead: Darkest Dawn, director Zebediah de Soto's prequel/re-telling of George A. Romero's 1968 original.

[78] In 2011, Harris won the Best Actress Award at the Shockfest Film Festival for her starring role in the short Nice Guys Finish Last.

[79] The 2012 Burbank International Film Festival gave Harris its Best Actress Award for her portrayal of literary heroine Wendy Alden in Shiver.