Lahti's stage credits include 8, God of Carnage, Dreams of Flying Dreams of Falling, The Heidi Chronicles, The Exonerated, Third, and A Body of Water.

She won an Oscar for directing the short film Lieberman in Love and received an Oscar nomination for acting in the film Swing Shift. In addition, she won an Emmy Award for her work on the CBS-TV series Chicago Hope, and starred on the series Jack and Bobby.

Hawaii Five-O also stars Scott Caan and Daniel Dae Kim.