Travis's first job after graduating high school was in the play "It's Hard to be a Jew" at The American Jewish Theatre in New York. She was an intern at the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival where she played minor roles and understudied leading actresses. After that, Travis appeared in a stage version of Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs and was a founding member of the Off-Broadway theater company Naked Angels. She appeared in their Frank Pugliese play "Aven U-Boys", as well as in "King of Connecticut" and "I'm Not Rappaport". She has also starred in Athol Fugard's "My Children, My Africa."

During the 1990s, Travis starred in several films, including the police drama Internal Affairs with Richard Gere and the Mike Myers comedy So I Married an Axe Murderer.

She starred in two TV series of her own, Almost Perfect and Work With Me, then had a regular role in the television sitcom Becker from 2002-04, replacing Terry Farrell as the love interest of Ted Danson. More recently