Michelle Susan Ward was born in the Deep South, in the Louisiana city of Monroe to Eddie and Emily Sue Ward. She came from a large, religious family and has one older brother, Michael. Susan had a very happy upbringing and was raised on a farm with lots of animals, leading her to dream of a career as a vet. She attended Ouachita Parish High School, transferring to River Oaks High, a small private school, her final year.

Age 13, Susan was shopping in a local mall with her mother when a model scout approached them, offering to take her to a model competition in New York. Susan always wanted to go to New York as modelling would be a great way to pay for college. She travelled to Manhattan for the contest and the Ford agency offered her a contract. For the next three years Susan travelled to New York during the school holidays to model, remaining at home and attending school in Louisiana when she was not working. She worked sporadically as a child model in catalogues, magazines, even teen novel covers when she was older. Although she landed mostly small jobs - no fashion shows or magazine covers - her career success changed her mind about veterinary school. At 16, Susan accompanied a friend to an acting class. Her model agency got her a non-speaking walk-on in TV series Swans Crossing and when Ford ended her contract, Susan decided to stay in New York permanently and become an actress. She started taking acting classes and going on auditions and soon landed a walk-on role in one episode of soap opera All My Children as Camille, a bitchy waitress. The show gave her her first real acting job a year later when they brought her character back.

In June of 1995, she auditioned for a part on the NBC prime-time series from Aaron Spelling, "Malibu Shores." More than six months later, she was asked to fly to Los Angeles to test for the role. It was at the test that she was first introduced to Aaron Spelling. Susan Ward then began pursuing opportunities on the big-screen. She continued her chain of passionate and seductive roles, appearing in "Poison Ivy: The New Seduction". Her next film, which opened July 19th, is the Warner Bros. picture "The In Crowd" in which she co-stars with Lori Heuring. Ward can next be seen in the upcoming primetime TV show "Day One".