In 1999, she was cast as Greenlee Smythe on the ABC soap opera All My Children; she held the role off-and-on until the network series finale in 2011.
In August 2024, Budig began playing the contract role of Dr. Taylor Hayes on the CBS soap The Bold and the Beautiful.
Born in Cincinnati, Ohio and raised in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, Budig was the youngest of three siblings and five half-siblings, as each of her parents had children by a previous marriage.
[2] At approximately 9 years of age, she returned to Cincinnati to attend the School for Creative and Performing Arts, which she did from grade 4 through 12, graduating in 1991.
[3][4][5] Budig then attended the University of Miami until, at her manager's suggestion, she dropped out during her sophomore year and headed west, so as not to miss out on that pilot season's auditions.
[6] She later had a cameo role as a teenage girl saved by Chris O'Donnell's character Dick Grayson in Batman Forever.
[6] In 1995, Budig was about to audition for the role of Kelsey Jefferson on All My Children when she received an offer from Guiding Light, where she began her three-year stint as Michelle Bauer from (1995 to 1998).
[8] While on All My Children, Budig garnered accolades from fans and press for her performance on the soap opera, as well as her character's pairing with Josh Duhamel's Leo du Pres.
Her onscreen pairing with Duhamel earned them a Daytime Emmy Award nomination as well, for America's Favorite Couple in 2002.
Budig worked for the World Wrestling Federation as an interviewer for a short time on Sunday Night HEAT in 2000.
[18] On August 6, 2024, Budig began airing on her fourth soap opera, The Bold and the Beautiful, stepping into the long-running role of Taylor Hayes.