As the widow of a firefighter who perished on 9/11, Callie was at the center of the controversial FX drama, "Rescue Me" from the beginning. Actress played Sheila Keefe, and her deceased husband was lead character Tommy Gavin's cousin and best friend, who speaks to him like a conscience from time to time. Sheila and Tommy, played by series star and co-creator Denis Leary, soon began a controversial romance, breaking an unwritten firefighter's code.

An experienced stage performer, Callie has worked frequently with the NYC acting troupe Naked Angels and at the now-defunct Malaparte, a theater company where actor Ethan Hawke directed her in Jonathan Marc Sherman's play "Veins and Thumbtacks". In 1997, the sexy dark-haired actress joined the ensemble of NBC's "Homicide: Life on the Street" as Detective Laura Ballard, a seasoned homicide detective recently transplanted to Baltimore from Seattle. This girl made her film debut, billed as Calliope Thorne, in "Ed's Next Move" in 1996 and also appeared in "Turbulence" in 1997, opposite Ray Liotta and Lauren Holly. Callie also had small roles in "Next Stop Wonderland" in 1998 and "Sidewalks of New York" in 2001 as well as a bit part as an FBI agent in "Analyze That," in 2002.

Before "Homicide" and "Rescue Me", Callie was no stranger to critically acclaimed television drama. Thorne also portrayed the ex-wife of Baltimore Detective James McNulty (played by Dominic West) in HBO's "The Wire". Other television appearances include USA's "The Street" as well as NBC's "Third Watch" (NBC) and two "Law & Order" spin-offs: "L&O: Special Victims Unit", and "L&O: Criminal Intent". Actress also appeared in the critically appraised Comedy Central series "Strangers with Candy" and had a small role in the HBO original movie "Hysterical Blindness" in 2002.

On the stage, Callie acted opposite Eric Bogosian and Sam Rockwell in "The Last Days of Judas Iscariot" directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman, as well as "Gone Home", "Joe Fearless" and "The Country Club".