Natalie Thomas was born in Crescent City, California, and began her performing career as a dancer. She was raised in Santa Cruz, California, where she trained at Santa Cruz Ballet Theatre. Natalie left home at age fifteen to attend North Carolina School of the Arts and later Pacific Northwest Ballet School, both on scholarship. At the age of nineteen, Natalie accepted a two-year contract with Nederlands Dans Theater II, the international modern dance company based in The Hague, The Netherlands. Natalie then moved to Germany to join the Komische Oper Berlin. Six months into her contract, William Forsythe offered her a soloist position with Ballett Frankfurt (re-established as The Forsythe Company). With Ballett Frankfurt, Natalie toured the world with dance-theater repertoire, performing at venues like the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Sadler's Wells.

Through her exposure to text in the dance-theater work she was performing, Natalie became interested in acting. She moved to New York City to study acting at the Maggie Flanigan Studio and to work with The Wooster Group.

Natalie has been working as an actor in New York City, doing film, television and theater. She played the role of Lady Macbeth for one year in Punchdrunk's hit show, Sleep No More, and has also performed in shows at The Cherry Lane, St. Ann's Warehouse and The Kitchen. She is a frequent performer with theater director Jay Scheib and has done several projects with him in New York and on tour, including Platonov or The Disinherited, Untitled Mars (This Title May Change), and Bellona, Destroyer of Cites. Natalie's first feature film was Month To Month, a dramedy written and directed by Wes Hopper, for which she won best supporting actress at Iowa Film Festival. She played a lead role in Everything Is Gonna Be Pink, directed by academy-nominated Roni Ezra. Natalie was a part of Portraits In Dramatic Time, an installation by David Michelak, alongside artists William H. Macy, Alan Rickman and Holly Hunter. Natalie has collaborated with director Brock Labrenz on several projects and is a member of his company, An Films. They have created Heute Nacht, and 1901, which she also produced and co-wrote. Any Other Normal is their latest film. Natalie is also set to play Christie McNally, based on the real person, in Untitled Lama Feature, written by Carolyn Briggs (Higher Ground) and Cara Perlman.