The son of composer Steve Dorff, the actor began his career appearing in commercials and making guest appearances on various TV shows like "Diff'rent Strokes". Dorff has been featured in several TV-movies, usually based on true stories, beginning with "In Love and War" (NBC, 1987). Among his other credits are "I Know My First Name Is Steven" (NBC, 1989), as the kidnapped victim of a child molester, and "Always Remember I Love You" (CBS, 1990), as an adoptee who discovers that he was stolen at birth.

After making his feature debut in the teen horror flick "The Gate" (1987), Dorff returned to TV until 1991's little-seen "Rescue Me", in which he was a teen out to save the girl he loves from kidnappers. Despite its unevenness, "The Power of One" proved an apt showcase for Dorff, who mastered a British-Afrikaner accent for the role and held his own against Sir John Gielgud. He again displayed a penchant for accents as the Liverpudlian Stuart Sutcliffe, the "fifth" Beatle, in the stylish biopic "Backbeat" (1994) and as an English youth suspected of murder in "Innocent Lives" (1995). Dorff has stated that the role closest to him was Cliff Spab in "SFW" (1994), a meditation on the effects of celebrity. He offered a gentle turn as Mia Farrow's estranged son in "Reckless" (1995) and won much critical praise as transsexual Candy Darling in Mary Harron's "I Shot Andy Warhol" (1996). The following year, he co-starred as Jack Nicholson's stepson in Bob Rafelson's thriller "Blood and Wine" (1997). In 1998, Dorff was the hated villian in the action feature "Blade", co-starring Wesley Snipes. He then switched paths to tormenting and titallation in his role as Cecil in the comedy feature "Cecil B. Tormenting" (2000),

In 2002, Dorff co-starred as Mike Reilly in the horror feature "Feardotcom", also co-starring Natascha McElhorne.