Brenner earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Texas at Austin and received a M.A. from New York University Film School. She was the first female baseball columnist covering the American League, traveling with the Boston Red Sox for the Boston Herald during the 1979 season. Brenner worked as a contributing editor for New York magazine from 1980 to 1984, and covered the royal wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer.
Brenner joined Vanity Fair as a special correspondent in 1984. She left the magazine in 1992 to become a staff writer at The New Yorker, returning to Vanity Fair in 1995 as writer-at-large. Her 1996 article for Vanity Fair on Jeffrey Wigand and the tobacco wars, titled "The Man Who Knew Too Much", was made into the 1999 feature film The Insider, starring Russell Crowe and Al Pacino, and directed by Michael Mann. It was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
In 2012, Brenner penned a piece entitled "Marie Colvin's Private War", for Vanity Fair. This article was later adapted into the film A Private War, directed by first time director, Matthew Heineman, and starring Academy Award nominated actress, Rosamund Pike. Pike was nominated for Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama at the 76th Golden Globe Awards, while Heineman was recognized with a nomination from the Directors Guild of America with a nomination for Outstanding Directorial Achievement of a First-Time Feature Film Director.

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