Growing up on a council estate, she spent her youth days constantly exploring the "chalk pits, fields, woods and motorways" of Dartford.

When asked if the story is in any way autobiographical, Arnold replies "I grew up in a working class family, so I guess you could say I write from what I know.

In explaining why she moved from London to study film in the U.S. she states, "I felt my lack of education and accent always held me back in the eyes of the gatekeepers".

[11] After leaving school in the late 1970s, Arnold got her first TV jobs as a dancer on shows that included Top of the Pops.

In addition to these parts, the show had the usual mix of music, competitions and cartoons that was in keeping to the formula of British Saturday morning children's TV of the 1980s.

73 had morphed into 7T3, with the set being moved from the Maidstone house (in fact in TVS studios in Kent) to that of a theme park.

After retiring from her career as a television presenter, Arnold studied directing at the AFI Conservatory in Los Angeles and trained in screenwriting at the PAL Labs in Kent.

Also in 2003, she directed an episode of the Channel 4 series Coming Up titled "Bed Bugs", though she is sometimes erroneously credited as "Andrew Arnold" for the work.

Set on a housing estate in Glasgow, the revenge-themed story centres on a CCTV (security TV cameras) operator who develops an obsession with someone she observes, for reasons that become clear through the progress of the film.

The picture has won the British director comparisons with established names such as Michael Haneke and Lars von Trier.

[20] She won the 2007 BAFTA Award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer for directing Red Road.

In 2008, Arnold was reported to be directing an adaptation of Gillian Flynn's novel Sharp Objects for French production company Pathé, but the project never materialized.

In 2011, she completed shooting an adaptation of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, produced by London's Ecosse Films.

She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2011 New Year Honours for services to the film industry.

It stars Natalie Press as a struggling single mother determined not to let her four young children prove an obstacle in the pursuit of igniting a relationship with an old friend (Danny Dyer).

It is named after, and partly set at, the Red Road flats in Barmulloch, Glasgow, Scotland which were the tallest residential buildings in Europe at the time they were built.

[5] Fish Tank premiered in 2009 and was accepted into competition for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and received the Jury Prize.

[5] In its initial production, distributor Artificial Eye had acquired the UK theatrical rights, while ContentFilm International handled the worldwide sales.

[31] The film was made in 18 months, which is half the amount of time Arnold used to make Red Road and Fish Tank.

[10] Oscilloscope Laboratories picked up the North American distribution rights to the adaptation, which won Best Cinematography at the Venice Film Festival in 2011, being praised for its visuals.

[33] Arnold's fourth film, American Honey, revolves around a group of young adults traveling across the country selling magazine subscriptions.

The meandering plot focuses on the journey of the mag-crew kids as they drink, smoke, dance, joke around, and have various conversations in their van.

[43] In June 2023 Arnold began filming her new project Bird in Kent, with Barry Keoghan in a leading role.

For example, both Fish Tank and Wuthering Heights are dramas featuring teenagers living in the poverty-stricken English edge-lands.