She also voiced the lead role of Fawn in the Disney animated fantasy film Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast (2014).

[4] Goodwin changed the spelling of her name from "Jennifer" to "Ginnifer" to distinguish her name, and to assist in how her name is pronounced in her Southern regional dialect.

[citation needed] She was baptized as a child and also studied to have a bat mitzvah service, in the Jewish custom of recognizing her coming of age.

She attended Hanover College (majoring in theater) for one year before transferring and completing her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Boston University.

Goodwin was given the "Excellence in Acting: Professional Promise Award" by the Bette Davis Foundation, and graduated with honors.

She later had substantial roles in the films Mona Lisa Smile, Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!, Walk the Line—in which she portrayed Vivian Liberto, Johnny Cash's first wife—and Birds of America.

[citation needed] Goodwin played a leading role as Margene Heffman, the third wife in a polygamous family, on the HBO original series Big Love, which concluded on March 20, 2011.

She played both the fairy tale heroine Snow White and her real-world counterpart, schoolteacher Mary Margaret Blanchard.

[15] Goodwin and husband Josh Dallas left the show at the end of its sixth season to move back to Los Angeles with their family.

[33] Goodwin also filmed a video for the American Jewish Committee in which she claimed that the phrase "Globalize the Intifada" called for Jews worldwide to be attacked.

[34] In February 2024, Goodwin signed an open letter by Creative Community for Peace rejecting calls for Israel to be banned from Eurovision 2024 amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

[35] In September 2024, Goodwin attended Zionist activist Hen Mazzig's seminar Jews Talk Justice Laboratories in Los Angeles.