Reuten was born in Bussum, Netherlands, the daughter of an Italian mother and a Dutch father. Reuten portrayed Duncan MacLeod's love interest Anna in Highlander: The Source, released in September 2007. She also played Lotte in the movie Twin Sisters, and Debbie in the Oscar-nominated film Everybody's Famous!. Most recently she appeared in Martin McDonagh's film In Bruges, the opening night film of the Sundance Film Festival 2008.

In 2005, she was cast as the bride in Garcia Lorca's play Blood Wedding at the Almeida Theatre in London. In October 2006, she traveled to Los Angeles to play Mina, a Muslim fundamentalist posing as a nanny while secretly preparing an assault on the United States, in the television series Sleeper Cell. In February 2008 she played Elsa in the Lost episode "The Economist".

She played opposite George Clooney in the 2010 Anton Corbijn movie The American, which opened in the U.S. on 1 September.