Miriam Leone was born in Catania, Sicily, to Gabriella Leone, a municipal employee, and Ignazio Leone, a retired teacher. As a child, she lived in Aci Catena, where her parents were from.

In 2008, she was the winner of the 69th edition of the Miss Italy beauty contest that opened for her the doors of the entertainment world. She presented the TV show Unomattina Estate (1992), was the judge of the Ciak Award and the host of the Nastro d'Argento award ceremony in 2011.

She started her acting career doing small roles on TV and cinema before debut as lead actress in television series Distretto di polizia (2000), La dama velata (2015), Non uccidere (2015) and the trilogy 1992 (2015), 1993 (2017), and 1994 (2019) about the Tangentopoli scandal. In 2021, she played Eva Kant, the main role of the movie adaptation of the comics series Diabolik (2021).

She has been married to Paolo Carullo since September 18, 2021.