Ward was born in Monroe, Louisiana. She attended a private, Christian elementary school (Monroe Christian School), in Monroe, LA. She briefly attended Northeast Louisiana University (now University of Louisiana at Monroe). She began modeling at the age of 13, leaving school and moving to New York to do so, deciding to try her hand at acting several years later. After a few years of small TV jobs on All My Children and NBC's short-lived Malibu Shores, she landed her first main role as the heroine on Aaron Spelling's daytime soap opera Sunset Beach, where she played the virginal Meg Cummings.　　In 1999, she began to pursue a movie career, and starred as the psychotic Brittany Foster in the erotic thriller The In Crowd. The movie was a commercial disappointment in theaters, but found some success on cable and home video.　　The following year, Ward played a supporting role in the hit movie Shallow Hal. She has also acted in three other straight-to-video and made-for-cable movies, and has guest starred in four TV series, most notably Friends.　　She is now playing the role of Chloe Kmetko, mother of a young gymnast, on the ABC Family drama series Make It or Break It.　　Ward is married to David C. Robinson, the vice-president of Morgan Creek Productions, the movie studio that produced The In Crowd. They met when he cast her in the movie in 1999 and wed on June 4, 2005. Dr. D.H. Clark, a"friend of the bride," performed the ceremony