Jill Larson's desire to pursue acting more consistently prompted her to move to New York City. At that time, she also decided to enroll at Hunter College, first majoring in economics and later switching to communications and theater.

After graduation, she joined Circle in the Square Professional Theater Workshop, where she worked with fellow students Ken Olin and Kevin Bacon, among others. Her acting résumé filled up with roles on and off-Broadway. Her Broadway credits include Death and the King's Horseman, written and directed by Nobel Prize laureate Wole Soyinka; Romantic Comedy and Dancing in the End Zone. Off-Broadway and at the nation's top regional theaters, she starred in Agnes of God, Gypsy, The Glass Menagerie, Private Lives and The Tempest, among others. Jill is also a founding member and President of GLM Productions, through which she produced the off-Broadway revue, Serious Business, and co-produced the student Academy Award-nominated documentary film, Gibbs Garden, a profile of a painter with AIDS.

Ms. Larson garnered more film and television roles, with her early forays generally as a sight gag; among them the memorable frenetic disco dancer alongside Joe Piscopo on Saturday Night Live; a tall skinny wife to a fat wrestler in Piscopo's film, Wise Guys; and a stint on David Letterman. Other television parts followed, including guest appearances on Kate and Allie, The Equalizer, and the ABC Afterschool Special, Over the Limit.