Born in Virginia in 1984, Brown began her career as a child model with the Ford Agency as age five. Two years later, she was among the pack of nine children onstage in John Guare's Tony-nominated Broadway play "Four Baboons Adoring the Sun". That part in turn led to Brown's stint as the young Cosette in the long-running musical "Les Miserables". Brown later appeared as young Kim and in the ensemble of the 1994 highly-praised, award-winning revival of "Show Boat", staged by Harold Prince. By this time, the youngster was displaying her prodigious talent and winning a legion of fans as Marah Lewis on the popular CBS daytime drama "Guiding Light". During her five years (1993-98) on the soap, Brown literally grew up in front of viewers and her emotional and touching work during the 1995-96 season brought her a Daytime Emmy nomination and higher visibility. She went on to portray the spoiled cousin of Jena Malone's titular "Ellen Foster" (CBS, 1997) and a teenage witch in the Disney Channel comedy-drama "Halloweentown" (1998) before her star-making turn in "Tumbleweeds".