Elliot first won notice in 1989 when she made her TV series debut in the short- lived ABC sitcom "Living Dolls". Along with Halle Berry, she was one of four young models living with and being groomed by Michael Learned. In some ways, the series mirrored Elliott's own life, as she had lived with agent Eileen Ford while breaking into modeling while still a teenager. In 1990, Elliot had a small role in "Perfect Date", an "ABC Afterschool Special". Her other TV roles have included Peggy Ann Buckey, the daughter of the family accused of child molestation, in "Indictment: The McMartin Trial" (HBO, 1995) and as one of five Americans who launch themselves into English society in the BBC production "The Buccaneers" (shown in the USA on PBS' "Masterpiece Theater" in 1995).
Elliott's early forays into feature films were minor, including "Monkey Trouble" and playing the wife of Morgan Earp (Linden Ashby) in Lawrence Kasdan's "Wyatt Earp" (both 1994). Director Steven Soderbergh cast her in "The Underneath" (1995), as a sultry femme fatale involved with both William Fichtner and Peter Gallagher. Good notices helped lead to Lee David Zlotoff's independent "The Spitfire Grill" (1996). Cast as Percy Talbott, an Appalachian woman recently released from a prison, the actress more than held her own with such veterans as Will Paton and Ellen Burstyn. She made a return to period pieces as an American heiress alongside Linus Roache and Helena Bonham Carter in Iain Softley's "Wings of the Dove" (1997), based on the Henry James novel. Elliott had the dual role of an Irish woman and her doppelganger in "Michael Almereyda's 'The Mummy'" (also 1997).