Gleason was born in Lake City, Minnesota, the daughter of Mary Elizabeth (Kane) and Harold Clifford Gleason. During her high school years in St. Paul, Minnesota, she starred in a Theater St. Paul production of Once Upon a Mattress.
Her first screen role was the a 1982 episode of Texas, a soap opera that aired on NBC. She appeared on, among many others, such television series as Full House, Dear John, Murphy Brown, Empty Nest, L.A. Law, Saved by the Bell, Friends, and Step by Step. She appeared in more than 50 feature films, including I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, Basic Instinct, Traffic, Bruce Almighty, 13 Going on 30, The Crucible, Bottle Shock, A Cinderella Story, The Island, Killing Kennedy, and Nina. In one of her last roles, she voiced Professor Foxtrot in CollegeHumor's animated web series WTF 101.[citation needed]
In addition to acting, Gleason also wrote for Guiding Light and was part of the team that won the 1986 Daytime Emmy for outstanding daytime drama series writing.

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