When she was four years old her family moved to Singapore and lived there for six years before moving back to Houston.
She has English, Scottish, Irish and Cherokee ancestry.
She submitted an audition tape in hopes of playing Jessica in The Merchant of Venice (2004): director Michael Radford instead cast Collins as the female lead Portia after the originally cast Cate Blanchett dropped out (due to pregnancy).
Started dating her second husband, Matthew Boyle, in 2014 and they were married soon afterwards.