After several years of modeling, waiting tables, auditioning, and acting in some forgettable films and TV shows, Lauren Holly got her big break in the TV show "Picket Fences." This was followed by a role in "Dragon" as the wife of Bruce Lee, Linda. As Holly told Deseret at the time, "I feel very lucky. Many women in the business complain that there are no great women's roles and I am sitting here with two of them." According to Holly, her success was down to luck — but, clearly, filmgoers and filmmakers alike were impressed with her work.

After her career took off with "Picket Fences," she landed a starring role in "Dumb and Dumber," opposite Jim Carrey. With this project, Holly not only became a household name, but she also began dating Carrey. As she told Female First, "It was fun to make a movie with your boyfriend, or whatever ... big groups of us, of the crew and cast, would go to Lake Powell ... and rent house boats for the long weekends and just do cook outs and jet ski and swim, and it was just so much fun, you know?"