As a toddler, she appeared with her mother in "Heartburn" (credited under the name Natalie Stern to avoid press scrutiny). Twenty months old at the time of filming, she received a positive review in the New York Times. After graduating from college in 2005, she made her off-Broadway debut alongside Michael C. Hall in the premiere of Noah Haidle's "Mr. Marmalade", for which she won a Theatre World Award. In 2007, she received a Lucille Lortel Award nomination for her performance in Theresa Rebeck's "The Water's Edge".