Her best-known film roles are Vanessa Kensington in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997) and as the Devil in Bedazzled (2000).

In 1994, Hurley accompanied Hugh Grant to the London premiere of his film Four Weddings and a Funeral,[2] in a plunging black Versace dress held together with gold safety pins, which gained her instant media attention.

[11] Hurley attended Harriet Costello School,[12] a mixed secondary in Basingstoke, and, while in her teens, she became involved with punk fashion, dyeing her hair pink and piercing her nose.

Hurley continued in the sixth form and took A-levels in English, Sociology and Psychology[15] in 1983 before studying dance and theatre at the London Studio Centre.

[17] In 2000, she was publicly criticised for breaking a five-month acting strike to film an Estée Lauder advertisement, for which she was fined $100,000 (£70,000 in 2000) by the Screen Actors Guild and labelled "Elizabeth Scably" by protestors.

After appearing in John Cleese's The Human Face (2001), she hosted the inaugural series of the British reality show Project Catwalk on Sky 1 in 2006.

[22] In 2011, Hurley filmed a guest star role in the series pilot of NBC's Wonder Woman as the villain Veronica Cale.

Her character, Diana Payne, was described by the series' executive producers as "a sexy, smart, self-made media mogul and all-around force to be reckoned with", whose "entrance on the Upper East Side will change the lives of all our characters—including, and especially, Gossip Girl herself.

[26] The drama series, revolving around a fictional British Royal Family and set in modern London, stars Hurley as the matriarch Queen Helena.

[26][27] Hurley played Marvel Comics villain Morgan le Fay in the final season of the Hulu show Runaways, released in 2019.

She was part of the seasonal advertising campaigns for Jordache, Shiatzy Chen, Got Milk?, Patrick Cox, MQ Clothiers of Sweden, and Lancel in 2006[31][32] and Monsoon in 2007.

[35] In April 2005, Elizabeth Hurley Beach, her beachwear line that she models every summer, was launched at Harrods in the UK.

[41] Hurley supported The Prince's Trust by co-presenting the 2003 Fashion Rocks event in its aid[42] and helping launch the Get Into Cooking youth initiative in 2004.

[43] She has helped raise funds for End Hunger Network,[44] ARK children's charity,[45] and the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Centre.

[49] Hurley was a relatively unknown actress when she met Hugh Grant in 1987 while working on a Spanish production called Remando Al Viento.

[53] The baby's father, American businessman Steve Bing, denied paternity by claiming that he and Hurley had a brief, non-exclusive relationship in 2001.

[66] In March 2018, her nephew Miles Hurley was stabbed repeatedly in the back by a group of men in Wandsworth, south London.