After graduating from Mercersburg Academy, a boarding school in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, she graduated from Middlebury College in 1994. She won the crown as Miss Vermont 1994 and competed in the Miss America 1995 pageant. In 1996, she began tutoring two young girls, Blair and Ana Van Pelt, in French, and later moved in with the Van Pelt family in Newport Beach, California. She has stayed in Southern California since then and currently resides there.
In 2002, Branch appeared on the ABC Daytime soap opera Port Charles as Mary Margaret "Paige" Barrington Smith and Rebecca "Becca" Barrington.
In July 2006, Maxim featured her in their "Girls of Maxim" gallery.
She plays the role of Zhana Agonskaya in the 2008 video game Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3.
In 2010, she voiced the character of Beatrice Portinari in the video game Dante's Inferno and also starred in the Disney Channel comedy series Sonny with a Chance.
In 2011, she starred as Claire in the Syfy original movie 51, which premiered in February 26, 2011.
In 2013, Branch was on the cover of H Magazine, photographed by Joey Shaw.
