In 1922, when she was six, she was selected for the leading role in a series of children's fairy story films; an article about this in the San Francisco Chronicle commented, "Joan Woodbury has been known for some time as America's 100 Percent Child, and has been photographed, sketched and painted by many artists.

Her mixture of Danish, British, and Native American heritage gave her an exotic appearance, and allowed her to be cast in many different ethnicities, from Hispanic to French and Asian.

She also began appearing in numerous Westerns, portraying the heroine opposite some of the 1930s' biggest cowboy actors, to include William Boyd of Hopalong Cassidy fame, Roy Rogers, and Johnny Mack Brown.

She founded the company Valley Players Guild in Palm Springs, California with her husband Ray Mitchell.

[citation needed] In addition to managing their company, she continued to act on occasion, with her biggest role after 1946 being a credited part in the 1956 epic The Ten Commandments, starring Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, and Anne Baxter.

In 1963–1964, Woodbury was on the television program Adventure in Art on KCHU-TV,[8] a UHF station in San Bernardino, California.

[8] Woodbury eventually settled in Desert Hot Springs, California, where she was residing at the time of her death at the age of 73.