A pretty dark-haired performer with an outdoorsy, graceful appeal, actress Manhattan first garnered notice with a role on the Fox primetime soap "Melrose Place" before joining the cast of HBO's acclaimed comedy "Sex & the City" in 1998. Born in Colorado and raised in South Carolina, Davis attended school in Rutgers, New Jersey and set out to pursue an acting career in nearby New York City after earning her BFA in theater. While in Manhattan she landed commercial and theater jobs, and won a role in the low-budget horror comedy feature "Doom Asylum" (1987). Davis, who had recurring roles on the daytime dramas "Another World" (NBC) and "General Hospital" (Abc, made her TV-movie debut in 1991's "N.Y.P.D. Mounted" (CBS) and had an early series role that same year on the Abccrime drama "Pros & Cons". Before winning the role on "Melrose Place", the actress' credits were somewhat sporadic, but included guest appearances on "The Larry Sanders Show" (HBO, 1993), "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" (CBS, 1994) and "ER" (NBC, 1995). Also in 1995, Davis had a small but pivotal role that outfitted her as a bald, spotted alien in the TV-movie follow-up "Alien Nation: Body and Soul" (Fox) and returned to the big screen with a cameo as a tennis attendant in the comedy "Nine Months".

Playing against type as cool sophisticate/scheming maniac Brooke Armstrong on "Melrose Place", Davis impressed the producers enough that her recurring role in the 1994-95 season became a regular one from 1995-1996. A well-mannered rich girl who snags resident nice guy Billy Campbell (Andrew Shue), and plots to keep him no matter what the cost, Brooke often faced off against rival and "Melrose Place" mainstay Allison (who was in fact her stepmother). The confrontations and outrageous manipulations between these two angel-faced women made for a highly entertaining ride. Following her dramatic onscreen departure from "Melrose Place", Davis starred in the NBC TV-movie "The Ultimate Lie" in 1996, and stayed with the network, taking 1997 guest roles on "The Single Guy", and a memorable two-episode recurring stint on "Seinfeld" as "Toothbrush Girl", a romantic interest of Jerry's whose toothbrush is inadvertently dropped in the toilet, leading to machinations by germ-phobic Jerry to steer clear of her mouth. That same year she starred as a woman with psychic abilities who can predict violent crimes in the AbcTV-movie thriller "A Deadly Vision".

In 1998, Davis returned to the big screen with an appearance in "Seinfeld" creator Larry David's "Sour Grapes". That same year she began her portrayal of Charlotte, a successful art dealer and the most idealistic and repressed of the group of four thirtysomething professionals around whom the racy HBO sitcom "Sex & the City" (1998- ) revolves. Although the most prim and proper, Charlotte often was placed in the oddest romantic entanglements on the show, with her more tame storylines including her dating a man she thinks may be gay, and allowing a foot fetishist shoe salesman to gift her with expensive shoes for the pleasure of touching her feet. Davis' role picked up along with the series in the second season, offering her more screen time and multidimensional situations as the show garnered greater critical acclaim and a Golden Globe Award for Best Comedy Series.

The short season of "Sex and the City" allowed Davis to branch out into other work. She starred opposite Rob Lowewith a decidedly unglamorous role as a wife and mother struggling with her husband to slow down an out of control locomotive carrying nuclear waste in the fast-paced NBC action miniseries "Atomic Train". Next she acted opposite Lowe's younger brother Chad, who played the late folksinger in "Take Me Home: The John Denver Story". Davis co-starred in the 2000 CBS biopic as Annie, Denver's first wife and inspiration for his aptly titled hit "Annie's Song".

Davis continued to focus on her role in "Sex" as her character Charlotte grew increasingly complex with each season of the show. While she was not nominated for an individual Emmy in 2002, "Sex and the City" received several nominations as a series. And it remained evident that Davis's adept handling of her character, which is somewhat out of step with the rest of the "Sex" girls, is an equally intergral part of the continued success of the show.