Raver was raised in New York City. From the ages of six to nine, she had a regular role on the seminal children's television series Sesame Street. After Sesame Street, the young actress joined Off-Off-Broadway's first all-children's theater. A fine arts graduate of Boston University, Raver continues to study theater in New York with teacher and mentor Wynn Handman. She is fluent in French and German, a language that she learned as a child from her German-born mother.

Together with husband Manuel Boyer she has two sons, Luke (b. 2002) and Leo (b. 2007). Leo Kipling Boyer was born on October 9, 2007, in New York City where Raver is filming her new show, Lipstick Jungle.