Born Clare Elaine Woodgate in Colchester, Cates attended Colchester County High School for Girls and broke into television acting when she was 16 years old, playing the role of Jenny Porter on the BBC's 2point4 Children.
[citation needed] In 1995, Cates (then still known as Clare Woodgate) auditioned for the role of Stella in the film An Awfully Big Adventure but was not cast.
On returning home, she dyed her hair red and reinvented herself as a 17-year-old Liverpudlian girl called Georgina Cates who had no previous acting experience.
She received critical acclaim for her role as Amanda in Clay Pigeons (1998) with Vince Vaughn and Joaquin Phoenix.
After a seven-year break from the movie industry, Cates returned to the independent film genre to co-star in Sinner, for which she won a Best Actress award at the Brooklyn Arts Council International Film & Video Festival.