Howell was born in Gastonia, North Carolina and graduated Winston-Salem State University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She worked as jazz singer and made her film debut in The Color Purple (1985). She lived in Okinawa, Japan, from 1995-2001.
She made guest appearances on Drop Dead Diva, Army Wives, The Game, Necessary Roughness, and The Vampire Diaries, and well co-starred in films include Daddy's Little Girls (2007), Mississippi Damned (2009), The Blind Side (2009), and What to Expect When You're Expecting (2012).
In 2013, Howell played Seeder in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Also in 2012, she was cast in recurring role of NBC post-apocalyptic series Revolution as Grace Beaumont, and in 2013 played Ida Hayes in Lifetime comedy-drama Devious Maids.
