Featherston was born in Texas. She attended Bowie High School in Arlington, Texas and participated in numerous drama activities. She attended college at the Southern Methodist University where she studied acting. She graduated with a bachelor's degree of fine arts in 2005 and afterwards moved to Los Angeles.
She is best known for portraying Katie, in the film Paranormal Activity, which was made in 2007 but released theatrically in the United States in 2009, and played the same role in the film's sequels, including the spin-off Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones, where she makes a cameo.
