Although she has worked in numerous productions, she is perhaps best known for portraying Anna DiMera on NBC's Days of Our Lives and Dana Waring on the ABC primetime soap opera, Dynasty.

After appearing as an unnamed female Colonial Warrior in four episodes of Battlestar Galactica, Hunley guest-starred on Mrs. Columbo and B. J. and the Bear before becoming a regular on the latter's spinoff The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo.

In the first season of Dawson's Creek (1998) she was Tamara Jacobs, a high school English teacher who has a tempestuous affair with her student Pacey Witter.

She also played Shira Huntzberger on Gilmore Girls in 2005, and has guest-starred in various comedy and drama series such as Just Shoot Me!, Strong Medicine, Raising Hope, NCIS, and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

After a 21-year absence from playing the role, Hunley returned to Days of Our Lives as Anna on June 21, 2007, recurring on the series until mid-2010.