She has guest-starred on the television series NCIS: Los Angeles, Covert Affairs and Alphas, and joined the cast of Supernatural for its eighth season.

[2] She grew up in the Willowdale neighbourhood of North York, now part of Toronto, and went to high school at Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute, where she was classmates with singer Henry Lau.

After seven auditions, she landed the part that won a Special Jury Citation at the 1999 Toronto International Film Festival and a nomination for a Canadian Comedy Award.

[6] Balaban starred in the independent drama One Week (2008) as Samantha Pierce, a woman whose fiancé (Joshua Jackson) is diagnosed with terminal cancer and takes a motorcycle trip across Canada.

She also shot the CBC TV movie Abroad, based on the love life of Leah McLaren, a Toronto columnist for The Globe and Mail.

[12] She appeared in the "Communication Breakdown" episode of the TV series Covert Affairs as Natasha Petrova, a Russian computer hacker, the character Auggie (Chris Gorham)'s ex-girlfriend.

[14] Balaban made her stage debut in February 2011 starring as Claire in Divisadero: A Performance at the Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto.

[15] Directed by Daniel Brooks, it was an adaptation of a Governor General’s Award-winning novel by Michael Ondaatje, with music by Justin Rutledge.

[19] She will also appear in the independent film The People Garden, starring Pamela Anderson and written and directed by Nadia Litz.