Crawford was born in Normal, Illinois, graduating from Carnegie Mellon University's college of Fine Arts in 1975. She is married to veteran character actor Mike Genovese. Art imitated life for the couple. On ER, Genovese portrayed officer Alfred Grabarsky, whom Nurse Wright wed during the show's third season.
She has performed on stage as well, most recently as Nora Melody in A Touch of the Poet by Eugene O'Neill, for Friendly Fire Theatre in New York City. Crawford also made a couple of guest appearances in 2010 in comedy-drama Desperate Housewives.
