Davis's big break came in 1995, when she was cast as the villainous Brooke Armstrong in the Fox prime time soap opera Melrose Place (1995–1996).

Her film credits include The Shaggy Dog (2006), Deck the Halls (2006), Couples Retreat (2009), Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012) and Holiday in the Wild (2019).

[2] She was adopted by her stepfather, then-University of Colorado Boulder professor Keith Davis,[3] after he married her mother, Dorothy, a university data analyst, in 1968.

Her big break came in 1995 when she landed the role of villainess Brooke Armstrong Campbell on the Fox nighttime soap opera Melrose Place.

She played leading roles in the 1999 miniseries Atomic Train alongside Rob Lowe, and television movies including Blacktop (2000), Three Days (2001) and The Winning Season (2004).

Davis reprised her role of Charlotte York a second time in 2010's Sex and the City 2, which grossed $290 million worldwide but was widely panned by critics.

[22] She later played a leading role and produced the 2021 thriller film Deadly Illusions about a bestselling female novelist (Davis) who is suffering from writer's block and hires an innocent young woman to watch over her twin children.

[23] Davis made her Broadway debut in July 2012, when she replaced Kerry Butler in the revival of Gore Vidal's The Best Man at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre.

[24] She made her West End debut playing Beth Gallagher in Fatal Attraction at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, in March 2014.

[25][26] Shortly after the wide release of the Sex and the City feature film, in June 2008, Belk, the nation's largest privately owned department store chain, announced a partnership with Davis.

In Belk's press release about the product line launch, Davis cited her upbringing in South Carolina as part of her inspiration for working with the chain.

[27] In late 2009 Belk cancelled the arrangement, citing the difficult economic conditions prevailing, while Davis said she hoped to take the line elsewhere.

[28] Davis is a Global Ambassador for Oxfam, and has campaigned in support of their work since 2004, travelling to locations including Haiti, Mozambique, and South Africa.

[29] In 2011 she gave a tearful interview with BBC News describing the situation at the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya where she witnessed the impact of drought.

In recognition of the attention she has brought to the plight of orphaned African elephants, Davis won the Humane Society's 2010 Wyler Award, which is bestowed on a celebrity or public figure who has made news on behalf of animals.