Philips was born in Miami Beach, Florida, to an Italian father and an Ashkenazi Jewish mother.
Philips landed her first supporting role in the 1995 TV movie Deadly Invasion: The Killer Bee Nightmare.
[5] In 1996, Philips had a small role in the TV movie Unforgivable as Tammy, the daughter of an abusive father.
In 1997, Philips played her first lead role in the TV movie Born Into Exile as Holly, a 14-year-old runaway.
In 2006, Philips again played a lead in a low-budget horror film, Ring Around the Rosie as a young woman plagued by horrible visions and dreams of tragic past events.