Lavi was born and raised in Ramat Gan, Israel. Her parents are both Israeli-born. Her mother is of Sephardic Jewish (Moroccan-Jewish) descent, whereas her father is of Ashkenazi Jewish (Polish-Jewish) descent. Her name means 'amber' in Hebrew. As a child, she suffered from asthma, and had to use a nebulizer for 45 minutes at a time. During that time, she watched movies, and "fell in love with cinema". One of her early inspirations was the performance of Israeli-American. In 2004, at the age of 17, Lavi moved to New York City, where she performed in various off-Broadway productions. After eight months, she moved to Los Angeles, after being accepted with a full scholarship to the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. Among her earliest English-speaking roles was Cordelia.

Starting in 2009, Lavi began making guest appearances on television shows including Entourage, The Closer, Ghost Whisperer, Criminal Minds, CSI: Miami, In Plain Sight and Castle. She has also appeared in films including Tales of an Ancient Empire (2010), Street Kings 2: Motor City (2011), and House of Dust (2013).

Lavi starred in the 2014 MTV television series, Underemployed, as Raviva, a pregnant aspiring singer. She portrayed Veronica "Vee" Dotson in the 2014 Fox television series, Gang Related. She appeared in the seventh season of Sons of Anarchy as street prostitute, Winsome.

In 2015, Lavi was cast in the lead role in the 2017 Bravo television series Imposters, playing "a Machiavellian con-artist and master of disguise". She was cast in the recurring role of Ravit Bivas, a highly-trained Israeli soldier, on the second season of the TNT naval drama, The Last Ship, in summer 2015. In 2016, Lavi joined the Prison Break revival in the role of Sheeba, a Yemeni activist. She joined the cast of Lucifer for the series' fourth season, playing Eve, the first woman, mother to Cain and Abel

Inbar lavi has black hair and white skin and brown eyes and is wearing a red dress and black shoes and She is 38 years old and is walking somewhere