She entered acting with a role in a Texas production of the musical The Rocky Horror Show. After moving to New York City and studying acting at the Lee Strasberg Institute, she made her feature debut in the 1991 film Brain Twisters (1991). Other films include Academy Award winner Barry Levinson's Disclosure (1994), Michael Mann's Heat (1995), Ground Control (1998), and Kate's Addiction (1998), in which she and Actress Kari Wuhrer play women in a lesbian love affair, and the TV-movies Journey to the Center of the Earth (NBC, 1993); Complex of Fear (CBS, 1993); Bionic Ever After? (CBS, 1994), and Abandoned and Deceived (ABC, 1995).

She became best known as Alex Lambert for two seasons on the NBC sitcom Wings. The part was a recurring role during the 1992-93 season, and a regular cast role the following year.

In 1989, at age 21, she underwent plastic surgery to receive silicone breast implants; however, the implants later ruptured and caused health complications for Forke, who had them removed four years later in February 1993. On March 24, 1994, she filed a lawsuit in Houston against Dow Corning, the Dow Chemical Company, the Inamed Corporation and the McGhan Corporation.

After Wings, Forke played Carey, an office manager for a computer software company, in the 1995 CBS sitcom Dweebs (1995), and then, from 1996 to 1997, a prep school Teacher in NBC's Mr. Rhodes. She also appeared on Ned and Stacey with her old Wings castmate Thomas Haden Church.