[5][6] Rice began her career in Perth, Western Australia, with several short films and Australian television credits.

[9] In 2016, Rice had her break-out performance as Holly March in the action comedy The Nice Guys opposite Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe.

In 2017, she played Eliza Wishart in the Australian film adaptation of the novel Jasper Jones which garnered several AACTA nominations.

[13] In 2018, Rice headlined the romantic drama Every Day, and as Lisa in the Australian film adaptation of Ladies in Black for which she won an AACTA award for Best Lead Actress.

[14][15][7] In 2019, Rice starred opposite Miley Cyrus in the season 5 finale of Black Mirror, an episode described as a "save-the-day buddy romp" and "a teen sci-fi adventure".

[20] Inspired from her current book club activities, she runs the podcast The Community Library with an aim to democratise critical reading skills.

[23] In December 2022, Rice was cast as Cady Heron in the film-adaptation of the Broadway musical Mean Girls, based on the 2004 hit film alongside Auli’i Cravalho, Reneé Rapp, and Jaquel Spivey, which was released in theatres on 12 January 2024.