Harring was born in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico on March 3, 1964. Her mother, María Elena Martínez-Cairo, is a spiritual teacher, real estate investor, and former secretary. Her father, Raymond Herring, was a developer and organic farmer of Austrian-German descent. The two divorced in 1971. Harring lived the first ten years of her life in Mexico, before her family relocated to San Antonio, Texas. Harring suffered a head wound from a .45 bullet when she was caught by stray fire from a driveby shooting at age 12. At age 16, she convinced her family to let her study in Switzerland at Aiglon College. She eventually returned to the United States, settling down in El Paso, Texas and entering the world of beauty pageants. She won the title of Miss El Paso USA, and soon after, Miss Texas USA, ultimately going on to win the title of Miss USA 1985. Harring spent the next year traveling through Asia, exploring Europe and working as a social worker in India.
Harring studied theatre at the London Academy of Performing Arts, having trained in the Italian commedia dell'arte, as well as Latin dances, including the Argentine tango. She began her acting career in the film Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out! Harring played the supporting role of Jerri, a flight attendant and the girlfriend of the brother of one of the protagonists, Chris, who joins them for family dinner at their grandmother's house. In television, she portrayed Raúl Juliá's character's wife in the NBC television movie The Alamo: 13 Days to Glory (1987). She was cast by NBC producers after they saw her on the Miss USA broadcast and contacted her with the role.
In 1990, Harring was lead actress in the Columbia Pictures release The Forbidden Dance, where she played the role of Nisa—a Brazilian princess who travels to Los Angeles to stop a corporation from demolishing her family home. That same year, she began recurring role on the ABC daytime soap opera General Hospital, as Carla Greco. The next few years, she had supporting roles in films - Exit to Eden (1994), and Black Scorpion II: Aftershock (1997). In 1997, she played the role of Paula Stevens in the NBC soap opera Sunset Beach. After leaving the show, she guest-starred on Frasier in the episode "Dial M for Martin", and appeared in the comedy film Little Nicky.

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