She is known for playing Arnold Schwarzenegger's hypoglycemic police partner in the 1990 film Kindergarten Cop and portraying the matriarch Gail Green in Jericho.

[3] Her notable film roles include The Long Riders (1980), The Right Stuff (1983), The Best of Times (1986), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Junior (1994),Deadly Whispers 1995 Bean (1997), and Proof of Life (2001).

Reed played Janice Pasetti in the quirky NBC sitcom Grand,[4] and then played a judge and single mother in the short-lived NBC sitcom The Home Court.

[5][4] In 2005 Reed portrayed executive producer Esther Shapiro in Dynasty: The Making of a Guilty Pleasure, a fictionalized television movie based on the creation and behind the scenes production of the 1980s prime time soap opera Dynasty.

Reed met Sandy Smolan when he directed her in Rachel River.