Even before starring in any movies, Piper had been studying acting and performing in several theatre productions at school. After University, she moved to New York and was later cast in her first movie - a short film called Single Spaced, where she played The Dame. Her first big role came after that, where she played the girlfriend of a wannabe rapper in Whiteboyz. She also did another short film at that time too called Knuckleface Jones. 2000 was a big year for her, she was cast in The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle as one of the lead characters, FBI agent Karen Sympathy. And the break-out role that really got her recognized and shot her into the spotlight was in Coyote Ugly. She played Violet Sanford aka 'Jersey', who moves to New York to persue her dream of becoming a songwriter. She had to take lessons in voice, guitar, piano and bartending to prepare for the role. And despite the movie not doing as well as it should have in theatres, she won an MTV Movie Award for Best Music Moment for "One Way or Another".

In 2001 she starred in a great independent Canadian movie called Lost and Delirious. She played a boarding school student who falls in love with another girl. The next year she starred as a French exchange student in Slap Her, She's French. It got shelved in North America and has only been released mostly in Europe so far. After what seemed like a long wait, we got to see her again in 2003, where she had a small role as the oldest daughter in Cheaper by the Dozen. The movie also starred Steve Martin, Ashton Kutcher & Bonnie Hunt.

Some people might be wondering what happened to her, since not too many of her movies have gotten wide releases lately, but she's finished 5 movies in the past couple years - The I Inside, Perfect Opposites, George & the Dragon, Edison, and recently a thriller called Prime Evil.