She started her career in 2010 with a recurring role on the CBS legal drama The Good Wife as Nisa Dalmar.
[3] While she had many aspirations like other kids her age, including being a surgeon, an astronaut thanks to Mae Jemison, a news anchor and an author, having written and illustrated books on printer paper, her passions for dance stuck.
Hilson told Backstage "I dedicated my life to Nutcrackers, spring recitals, dance camps" and recreating scenes from the 2000 movie Center Stage, starring Zoe Saldaña as Eva.
She was then recruited by her future agent, Nancy Carson of the Carson-Adler Agency, to dance in episodes of the children's musical series, LazyTown.
[9] In college, Hilson worked as a bread salesman, even servicing actress Lupita Nyong'o at one point.
[8] She has appeared in episodes of Royal Pains, Elementary, Nurse Jackie, The Affair, Madam Secretary, The Americans, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and First Wives Club.
Hilson admitted that she awkwardly confessed to having an allergic reaction to makeup when she first met Berry who gifted her with a facial kit.
[7] In 2019, Hilson would recur on This Is Us as the teenage version Beth Pearson, played by Susan Kelechi Watson.
According to Hilson, Mia afforded her "the opportunity to tell a unique and nuanced story about a young Black teenage girl.