[1] Ivey made her big screen debut playing the female lead role in the 1984 romantic comedy film, The Lonely Guy.
For her role in the television film What the Deaf Man Heard (1997), she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie.
Ivey portrayed Ann Landers in the solo play The Lady with All the Answers at the Cherry Lane Theatre (off-Broadway) in October 2009.
[9] In 2016, she returned to the Cherry Lane Theatre in Israel Horovitz's play Out of the Mouths of Babes with Estelle Parsons, directed by Barnet Kellman.
[citation needed] Ivey had lead role of Kate McCrorey in the two-season series Down Home (1990–1991), set in a Texas coastal town.
Ivey appeared in the television miniseries Rose Red (with a screenplay by Stephen King) as Cathy, one of the psychics investigating a haunted house.