She is best known for her roles as Victoria Newman on The Young and the Restless (1990 to 2003), Kelly Cramer on One Life to Live and All My Children (2003 to 2006), and Katie Logan on The Bold and the Beautiful (2007 to present).

On The Bold and the Beautiful she has earned four Daytime Emmy Awards and a total of six in her career, tying her for the most wins by a soap actress.

[2] In addition to her acting work, she has directed episodes of The Bold and the Beautiful, The Young and the Restless, Dynasty, and Good Trouble.

[5][6] When Tom was eleven, her family moved from Chicago, Illinois to Seattle, Washington, because her father's work transferred him.

Her mother got a job as a speech therapist for the Pasadena school system, while the children auditioned for acting roles.

After moving to California, she studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute and the Young Actors Space.

[3] After moving to Los Angeles, she landed guest-starring roles on Who's the Boss?, Kids Incorporated, Divorce Court, and Trial by Jury.

She starred as Kathy Acton in the CBS movie Deadly Whispers, co-starring with Tony Danza and Ving Rhames.

[4] For her role on The Young and the Restless, she received Daytime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Younger Actress in 1995 and also 1996.

[12][13] Tom co-founded the Creative Outlet Theater in Los Angeles with actor Chad Allen, producing and starring in Out of Gas on Lover's Leap and Vanities.

[14] Tom briefly left The Young and the Restless in February 1997 and returned several months later, with the role temporarily recast with Sarah Aldrich during her absence.

[17][18] On July 31, 1998, she began a one-month run in The Glass Menagerie at The Stella Adler Theatre in Los Angeles.

[20][21][22] Tom won her second Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actress for her role on The Young and the Restless in 1999.

[24] In August 2001, Tom starred on stage as Betsy in Lemonade, a four-person comedy, at the Tamarind Theater in Los Angeles.

[15] Tom joined the cast of the ABC soap opera One Life to Live as Kelly Cramer, first airing December 11, 2003.

[28] Tom also had a role in Moonchild at the Access Theater, as part of New York International Fringe Festival in August 2004.

[29] She played Chrysothemis in a free staged reading of Electra at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

[20] Tom received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress for her role on One Life to Live in 2005.

[45] For her role on The Bold and the Beautiful, Tom won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2011, after being nominated in the same category in 2008.

[52] For her role on The Bold and the Beautiful, she received another Daytime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress.

[56] Tom received Daytime Emmy Award nominations in the Outstanding Lead Actress category for The Bold and the Beautiful in 2017 and 2019.

[64] She is a regular competitor in the Nautica Malibu Triathlon, raising money for Children's Hospital Los Angeles.