Southfield, Michigan, native[1] Mathis briefly participated in beauty pageants, winning Miss Teen Michigan in 1998, though she did not place in the follow-up national pageant.
[2] After a number of years in background roles ('Irresistible Fantasy Woman #2', 'Hot Girl 2', 'Siren #4'), as well as minor roles in two feature films (Tess in 2007's Enchanted and Nicole in 2010's Unstoppable), Mathis had a major role in the 2011 direct-to-video film Blue Crush 2.
After Blue Crush 2, Mathis appeared in only three more, direct-to-video, releases; two in 2012 and one in 2015.
Mathis went through tough training for her role as Pushy in Blue Crush 2, including learning how to surf, despite having an on-screen surf-double.
Mathis worked with her dialect coach for two hours every day in preparation for her role as a native South African.