Brown began her career in the clubs of Los Angeles where rather than portraying a valley girl herself she told jokes about them. She established herself in the gay community there and often played at gay venues. Brown began experimenting in short films and made several underground movies which often played on the video screens at clubs. One of them, "5 Minutes Miss Brown," was a fictionalized account of her rise to fame.

Brown began working on television with a guest spot on the sitcom Happy Days. After a small role in the Clint Eastwood comedy film Any Which Way You Can, comedian Lily Tomlin saw Brown at a comedy club and gave her first big break, a part in her 1981 film The Incredible Shrinking Woman. Tomlin and Brown eventually became close friends. A string of guest starring appearances in a variety of television shows followed, including: Laverne & Shirley, Buffalo Bill, The Jeffersons and Newhart.

In 1984, she released her first EP, a five-song album called Goddess in Progress. The album, parodies of popular '80s music combined with her valley girl personality, was quickly discovered by the Dr. Demento Show. The songs "'Cause I'm a Blonde" and "The Homecoming Queen's Got a Gun" were given radio airplay across the world. The latter was a spoof on traditional 1950s songs about teen romance, à la "It's My Party", with cheerleader' heads and pompoms being blown to pieces.

In 1987, Brown released her first full-length album, Trapped in the Body of a White Girl. The album highlighted her comedic talent and valley girl personality. The album's highlights were "I Like 'em Big and Stupid" and the reprised "The Homecoming Queen's Got a Gun". (The album was reissued on CD in 2010 by Collector's Choice Music on its Noble Rot label.) Music videos were recorded and received heavy airplay on MTV. In 1989, Brown starred in that cable network's comedy and music-video show Just Say Julie. She played the role of a demanding, controlling, and pessimistic glamour-puss from the valley, making fun of popular music acts while at the same time introducing their music videos.

In 1988 she appeared as "Buffy Denver" on the sitcom Newhart playing a character that was even more self-centered and vain than Stephanie.

Brown's screen career hit its peak in late 1989 with the release of the film Earth Girls Are Easy. Written, produced by, and starring Brown, it was based loosely on a song by the same name from her debut EP. The film also starred Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis. Brown cast then-unknown comedians Jim Carrey and Damon Wayans. In 1990 Brown had a brief part in the movie The Spirit of '76, as an intellectual stripper.

NBC commissioned a half-hour pilot, ultimately unsold and airing Sunday, July 28, 1991, at 7 p.m. Eastern Time, titled The Julie Show. Created by Brown, Charlie Coffey, and director and executive producer David Mirkin, it was a comedy about actress Julie Robbins (Brown), who in this initial story, goes to great lengths to land an interview with teen singer Kiki (played by Kim Walker) in the hopes of getting hired as a tabloid-TV celebrity journalist. Developed under the working title The Julie Brown Show, it also starred Marian Mercer as Julie's mother, June; DeLane Matthews as Debra Deacon, a reporter on the fictional series Inside Scoop; Susan Messing as Julie's roommate Cheryl; and Kevin O'Rourke as Inside Scoop producer Tony Barnow. Brown was also a producer, with John Ziffren, and performed and co-wrote the theme song. Walker, Don Sparks, Robin Angers, and Deborah Driggs were guest performers in this production from Mirkinvision and New World Television.

Another pilot was filmed for NBC called "Julie Brown: The Show" and featured a similar theme. In it Brown was the hostess of a talk show and she would interview actual celebrity guests, interspersed with scripted scenarios. The pilot was aired but the show was not picked up; years later it leaked onto the internet.

In 1992, Brown starred in her own Fox sketch comedy show, The Edge; two of its regulars, Jennifer Aniston and Wayne Knight, later became sitcom stars, while Tom Kenny went on to voice SpongeBob SquarePants. That same year, she released the Showtime television movie Dare to Be Truthful, a scathing satire of celebrity Madonna and her backstage documentary Truth or Dare. (Co-star Kathy Griffin later starred on Suddenly Susan.) Brown followed with another satire, Attack of the 5 Ft. 2 Women, which lampooned the violence of ice skater Tonya Harding toward rival Nancy Kerrigan, as well as that of widely publicized castrator Lorena Bobbitt. In 2008, Brown got permission to issue Attack of the 5 Ft. 2 Women on DVD (Showtime had previously issued it on VHS) and sells copies on her website.

Brown continued to make television guest appearances and contributed voices to various cartoons, including Animaniacs and Aladdin. Two of her most famous appearances cartoon wise is as the original voice of Zatanna in the The Animated Series cartoon. Prior to this she also guest starred on a Tiny Toons Adventures episode as Julie Bruin, a cartoon bear version of herself, in which she guest starred in her own segment Just Say Julie Bruin, a reference to her music video show. The Just Say Julie Bruin cartoon also was a music video show and in her segment Elmer Fudd guest starred as Fuddonna, parody of Madonna and a reference to Julie Brown herself regularly mocking her.

Brown appeared as Coach Millie Stoeger in the film Clueless, reprising that role on ABC's 1996-1999 spin-off TV series, for which she was also a writer, producer and director. (One of Clueless' cast members, Donald Faison, later starred on Scrubs, while Elisa Donovan later had a similar three-year run on Sabrina the Teenage Witch.) In 1998, Julie appeared in the parody movie Plump Fiction. In 2000, Brown created the series Strip Mall for the Comedy Central network; it ran two seasons.

Since 2004, Brown has been a commentator on E! network specials, including 101 Reasons the '90s Ruled, 101 Most Starlicious Makeovers, 101 Most Awesome Moments in Entertainment, and 50 Most Outrageous TV Moments.

In 2005, Brown purchased the rights to her Trapped album back from the record label and reissued it herself. She also self-released a single, "I Want to Be Gay". In late 2007, she also purchased the rights to her 1984 E.P. "Goddess in Progress" and re-released it as a full-length record with compiled unreleased tracks recorded during that era. Brown began touring in late 2007 with her one-woman show Smell the Glamour.

In 2008, she co-wrote and appeared in the Disney Channel original movie Camp Rock, which starred The Jonas Brothers and Demi Lovato. She also joined the cast of her current television series, Paradise Falls, that same year.

In late 2008 Brown began releasing one-track digital singles, starting with "The Ex-Beauty Queen's Got a Gun" 1; it was a rewrite of "Homecoming Queen" with lyrics about Sarah Palin. This was first aired in September, 2008 on The Stephanie Miller Show. This was followed by several parodies of popular songs.

Brown was born in Van Nuys, California, the daughter of Celia Jane (née McCann) and Leonard Francis Brown. Julie Brown Biography (1954-) She attended Catholic school as a child, Van Nuys High School as a teenager, and as a young adult Los Angeles Valley College. In 1983, Brown married writer and actor Terrence E. McNally, who would also become a frequent collaborator. Together they co-produced her first single, "I Like 'em Big and Stupid". They divorced after six years. In 1994, Brown married Ken Rathjen, and together they have one son. In an article which appeared in the San Francisco Bay Times on October 18, 2007, she is quoted as saying that she recently divorced for the second time.

Brown is mentioned in the 2004 song "Again and Again," which was written by Bruce McDaniel and recorded by the rock trio Nine Men's Morris.