Cassandra Peterson was born in Manhattan, Kansas, and raised in Colorado Springs, Colorado. At age 17, she began performing as a showgirl at the Dunes Hotel in Las Vegas, then traveled to Europe where she pursued a career as a singer and actor. Upon returning to the states, Peterson toured America as star of her own musical-comedy show, Mama's Boys . She eventually settled in Hollywood, where she spent four years with L.A.'s foremost improvisational comedy group, The Groundlings. In 1981, she auditioned for the part of "horror hostess" on a local Los Angeles station. That show, Movie Macabre , and her newly created character, Elvira, became an overnight sensation and gained national syndication.

Peterson also co-wrote, produced, and starred in two feature length films: Elvira, Mistress of the Dark and Elvira's Haunted Hills . She has spent four decades solidifying her unique brand and building it into an internationally recognized pop culture icon synonymous with Halloween and the horror genre.