[3] While an undergraduate student at NYU, Erbe was cast as the daughter of Lynn Redgrave's character on the sitcom Chicken Soup.

She later became a member of Steppenwolf Theatre Company and has starred in many of their productions, including A Streetcar Named Desire, Curse of the Starving Class, and The Grapes of Wrath, which ran for six months and won the 1990 Tony Award for Best Play.

Erbe earned a Tony Award nomination in 1991 for her portrayal of Mary in The Speed of Darkness.

From 2001 to early 2010, she starred as Detective Alexandra Eames on the NBC/USA Network series Law & Order: Criminal Intent, alongside Vincent D'Onofrio.

In 2014, Erbe appeared in an episode of Last Week Tonight parodying her role on Law & Order: Criminal Intent.