Petra Yared, also known as Petra Jared, started doing acting workshops at the National Theatre in Melbourne when she was nine years old. She went to a few auditions and soon got her first small role. When she was eleven, she started doing auditions more frequently and got other small parts on television.

One of her first major accomplishments came in 1994, when she played one of the leading parts in the Australian children's series Sky Trackers. One year later, she starred in the miniseries Mirror, Mirror, a remarkable performance that earned her the AFI Award for best new talent (1995) and the Young Actors Award (1996). She then held a regular role on Neighbours for two months in 1996, before leaving the show to finish secondary school.

Petra has since proved to be an extremely versatile actress, as she has played very different roles in films such as Muggers (1999) and Blurred (2002), and in television series such as Halifax f.p. (1998) and MDA (2002-2005). At the end of 2007, she returned to Neighbours for a three-month guest stint as Mia Silvani, and then went on to film guest roles on All Saints (2008), City Homicide (2010), Rescue (2011) and Crownies (2011).

Petra's character in Crownies, Paula Corvini, was pregnant to accommodate Petra's real-life pregnancy. In October 2011, Petra and her partner Travis Cotton welcomed their first son, Theodore. They now live in Sydney, where Petra divides her time between her family and new acting projects.