In a 2018 interview with Vanity Fair, Layne said that she was always acting growing up and that her favorite movie as a child was The Lion King.

"[7] Layne's first acting role was with Lena Waithe in the pilot for the drama series The Chi, filmed in 2015.

[9] She starred in the 2019 screen adaptation of Richard Wright’s 1940 novel Native Son,[10] then alongside Charlize Theron in 2020's The Old Guard,[11] directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood.

[12] Layne was featured in composer Max Richter's Voices, which was inspired by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In 2021, Layne joined the cast alongside Eddie Murphy in the Amazon Prime sequel Coming 2 America.