She is known for her roles as Sarah Hurst in Easy Virtue (2008) and as Catherine Earnshaw in ITV's adaptation of Wuthering Heights (2009).

[3] She attended St Cuthbert's Society, Durham, from 2000 to 2003, performing with the sketch comedy group the Durham Revue[4] and in plays and musicals and graduating with a degree in English and Linguistics; she also attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art from 2005 to 2007.

[5] In 2004, Riley won the Sunday Times' Playwriting Award for Shaking Cecilia, which she co-wrote with Tiffany Wood.

[15] In 2008, Riley and Tom Hardy met while playing fictional lovers, Cathy and Heathcliff on the set of Wuthering Heights.

On 4 July 2014, the couple married in an intimate ceremony at Chateau de Roussan, attended by family and friends including Hardy's son from a previous relationship.