Hale grew up in the United States, attending the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham, Alabama. While in high school, Hale began working as a production assistant. After graduation, Hale worked as an actress, commuting between Birmingham and Atlanta. She got her first big break in the 1988 made-for-TV movie A Father's Homecoming.
Later she moved to Hollywood and has been doing voices for video games, animation, commercials, radio promotions, anime, and movies since 1993. She has also been a guest on several well-known TV shows, such as Charmed, ER, Just Shoot Me!, among others. She was sometimes credited as Carren Learning. She plays Cinderella and Princess Aurora in Disney's House of Mouse. She later voiced Bastila Shan for the popular Star Wars video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II — The Sith Lords. Recently, Hale has voiced various characters on Star Wars: The Clone Wars. She also voiced Naomi Hunter and various other characters in the Metal Gear Solid series of video games, as well as the female version of Commander Shepard in the Mass Effect series.