[3] She graduated from Idabel High School soon after, and, wanting to be close to Hollywood in order to fulfill a childhood dream of acting, attended UCLA, where she obtained a degree in History.
[3][5] Early in her career, Norris appeared in the TV special, Geronimo; the soap opera As The World Turns; and the first two episodes of the mini-series, Son of the Morning Star, where she played the character Kate Bighead, Gen. George Armstrong Custer's American Indian wife (a role that she claims caused her to thereafter become a niche-player in Hollywood).
[4][3] Norris played two different characters in the long running A&E drama, Longmire,[6] and she was Sheriff Nina White in ABC's prime-time TV soap, Blood & Oil.
[3] Norris is widening her role in the entertainment business and has been, in addition to acting and teaching, working as a screenwriter since 2015 to help change the stereotypical depictions of Native Americans in Hollywood.
[3] This broadening of her career came about—in part—due to the treatment she received while acting as a non-credited extra in The Revenant in which she was embarrassed by the director's inaccurate depiction of historic Native Peoples as dirty and slovenly individuals.
[1] One of her most significant roles on stage was originating the part of the Native American housekeeper Johnna Monevata, in the initial two-year run of the Tony Award winning play, August: Osage County, first presented by the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, on Broadway, in London and in Sydney.
[3][2] As of May 2021, Norris-Guerrero is working as the associate professor in the Department of Theatre, Film, and Digital Production at the University of California, Riverside, where she also serves as the current artistic director.
The StyleHorse Collective, designed to relate the life stories of Indigenous communities and individuals through film, music, and online production, was also co-founded by Norris.