Mena Suvari made her film debut working with director Gregg Araki in the cult-classic Nowhere (1997). That was soon followed by the back to back blockbuster successes of American Pie (1999) and the five-time Oscar-winner American Beauty (1999). Her genuine and moving performance as 'Angeles Hayes' in the latter iconic film, directed by Sam Mendes, earned her a BAFTA nod for Best Supporting Actress and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Ensemble Cast. Suvari also won a Movieline Award for Breakthrough Performance. She reunited with Jason Biggs in Amy Heckerling's romantic comedy Loser (2000) and continued to showcase her range in projects as diverse as Jonas Åkerlund's cult classic Spun (2002), Rob Reiner's Rumor Has It (2005), Tony Scott's Domino (2005), Beauty Shop (2005), and Factory Girl (2006), amongst others, while also contributing sequels to the American Pie franchise (American Pie 2 in 2001 and American Reunion in 2012).

Suvari had critically acclaimed roles in the independent films Becks (2017); Don't Tell a Soul (2019), starring opposite Rainn Wilson, which was accepted and premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival; and Grace and Grit (2021), starring opposite Frances Fisher and Stuart Townsend, based on the best-selling book, which premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival, which garnered her an award for best Actor.

On the small screen, Suvari reteamed with American Beauty scribe Alan Ball with an arc on the award-winning HBO series Six Feet Under (2004), which garnered her a Screen Actors Guild nomination, played the iconic Black Dahlia in Ryan Murphy's television series American Horror Story (2011 and 2018), appeared on the hit series Chicago Fire (2013), and continued to work in the medium as the lead in the Amazon pilot Hysteria (2014) and WeTv's miniseries South of Hell (2015), executive produced by Eli Roth and Jason Blum for Blumhouse Productions. Suvari also tried her hand at sketch comedy, taking successful turns on the series Inside Amy Schumer (2016) and Hot Date (2017). Most recently, Suvari was Nominated for an Emmy for her work on the series RZR (2024), co-starred in the highly anticipated television series American Woman (2018), produced by John Wells for the Paramount Network and the Lifetime film House of Chains (2022) which had the highest viewership of the year and was critically acclaimed for Mena's performance.

Suvari penned her autobiography: The Great Peace: A Memoir (2021), which was published by Hachette Books and released internationally in 2022. Additionally, Mena has also fronted several clothing and beauty campaigns, chief among them being tapped as one of the faces of the Lancome global campaign and being shot by the late Richard Avedon for Harry Winston's Winter advertising campaign. She currently resides in Los Angeles, CA.