Ali Larter was James Van Der Beek's co-star in the 1999 football movie Varsity Blues, where she appeared briefly in a bikini made entirely of whipped cream. That appearance gave her a certain cachet and led to roles in the horror films The House on Haunted Hill (1999, with Taye Diggs) and Final Destination (2000). She appeared on the April 2001 cover of the men's magazine Maxim, considerably boosting her profile. The same year she played Brooke Taylor Windham in the Reese Witherspoon comedy Legally Blonde, and played the girlfriend of Jesse James in American Outlaws. She has also co-starred in the Kevin Smith film Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001). In 2006 she began starring as a single mom with supernatural powers on the TV series Heroes, and in 2007 starred with Milla Jovovich in the action flick Resident Evil: Extinction.

Ali Larter married actor Hayes MacArthur on 1 August 2009... Ali Larter is sometimes confused with Ali Landry.