Her appearances include roles in Sense & Sensibility (2008), Casualty 1900s (2008–2009), Wolf Hall and The Player (2015), Close to the Enemy (2016), The Halcyon, Genius and Bounty Hunters (2017), and as Georgina Dymova in The Great (2020–2023).

"[6] In 2008 Wakefield toured in a revival of W. Somerset Maugham's The Circle at the Chichester Festival Theatre, as well as working on the BBC comedy pilot Freddi.

[7] Wakefield played a lead role as Marianne Dashwood in the BBC production of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility.

She appeared in the Channel 4 drama Any Human Heart[2] and played the lead in the British film noir Scar Tissue.

[13] In 2020, she was cast in a main role as Georgina Dymova in the Hulu's Historical comedy-drama The Great, alongside Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult.