Born in Alexandria, Virginia, she is a 1975 graduate of Groveton High School, which was mentioned in the movie, Remember the Titans. She began her career as a model and was named Miss Virginia USA in 1976 and Miss Washington DC World in 1977.
Months after they co-starred in the 1983 film Doctor Detroit, Dixon and Dan Aykroyd married. They later starred together in the 1985 film Spies Like Us and the 1988 film The Couch Trip, but she has played bit parts in movies since that time, including the "Dreamwoman" in the 1992 film Wayne's World. Dixon and Aykroyd have three children.
Dixon also played a guest role in the television series Moonlighting where she shared the adjacent prison cell to Bruce Willis's character David Addison.