Billed as Elizabeth Alice Broderick, and later as Norris O’Neal, she made her debut in two adult films, In Love (1983) and Bordello: House of the Rising Sun (1985). Both roles portrayed her as a lesbian and were financially unsuccessful. Again as Norris O’Neal, she appeared in the mainstream comedy Sex Appeal (1986). In 1986 she had small roles in If Looks Could Kill, Student Affairs, Young Nurses in Love, and Slammer Girls, a spoof of the women in prison film genre.

Her first significant role was in Stealing Home (1988), in which she played Leslie, a young woman who seduces a teenager (played by Jonathan Silverman). In 1990, she had a small part in The Bonfire of the Vanities. Her movie credits include Man of the Year (1995), Maternal Instincts (1996), Breast Men (1997), Psycho Beach Party (2000) and The Inner Circle (2003). She also played a small role in the movie Fools Rush In (1997), with Matthew Perry and Salma Hayek, as a business woman. In the film Timber Falls, she played a crazy religious woman, who together with her husband and brother, torture couples who break the rules of chastity while camping.

Her television credits include Married… with Children, The 5 Mrs. Buchanans, Hearts Afire, Supernatural and Glory Days. She guest starred on Northern Exposure in the 1992 episode “It Happened In Juneau”, playing a lusty doctor hunting for a one-night stand with Dr. Joel Fleischman, played by Rob Morrow. In 1997 she appeared in the racy Showtime series Women: Stories of Passion (“The Bitter and the Sweet” 2:17). She had a minor, recurring role in the hit ABC series Lost as Kate Austen’s mother, Diane. She played a minor role in CSI: Miami during a tsunami where she played a neighbor of CSI Ryan Wolfe’s uncle. More recently, she had guest starring roles on Leverage and Castle. In 2019, she was in “Sister of the Bride”, a Hallmark channel movie.

Broderick married Brian Porizek on January 26, 1998, and the couple divorced on July 11, 2000. Broderick married Scott Paetty on April 29, 2005. She had a year-long romance with director Brian De Palma during production of The Bonfire of the Vanities.