As an actress she supported the performances of many Broadway stars such as Ethel Barrymore, Helen Hayes, William Hodge, and Minnie Maddern Fiske.

In its assessment of The Desert Flower in December 1924, Variety—the nation's most comprehensive entertainment paper—recognizes her performance as important comic relief in that production:Despite its decidedly theatrical pattern, "The Desert Flower" contains many worthy moments...Several comedy touches well planted to relieve the tenseness of the drama also hit for a bull's-eye, especially the wedding celebration scene in the final act and the witticisms of Mrs. McQuade as delivered by Dorothy Walters, whose delineation of an Irish pessimist had [the audience] in continuous howls.

A few of her early screen appearances from 1918 and 1919 are the six-reel melodrama The Woman Who Gave, which was filmed in New York in the Adirondack Mountains; The Zero Hour; Little Miss Hoover; Through the Toils; and the comedy The Misleading Widow.

The 1921 edition of the Motion Picture Studio Directory and Trade Annual includes an entry for her, recognizing her screen work, mostly in New York-based productions.

According to her obituary in The New York Times, Walters was still acting just before her death, performing as a cast member in the "current" Broadway production Big-Hearted Herbert.