Madison began her career on the stage. By 1910, she had begun performing as part of a theatre troupe known as the Santa Barbara Stock Company in California. In 1913, she was contracted by the Universal Film Manufacturing Company to begin appearing in feature films. Madison established a name for herself as an actress with performances in films such as "The Trey o' Hearts" (1914). She is also considered a pioneering female director with a number of shorts and two feature films, "A Soul Enslaved" (1916) and "Her Bitter Cup" (1916), to her credit.