She began her career as a child in the film drama Moments with her parents and her brother, Paul.
After three years training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School she secured a part in 1986 in the BBC television sitcom Brush Strokes.
Early film work included parts in Prick Up Your Ears, and alongside her father in The Deceivers (1988).
James' Inspector Dalgleish story Devices and Desires (1991), Sharpe's Enemy (1994) when she played the part of Sarah Dubreton, the television adaptation of Ruth Rendell's Heartstones and also in The Bill in 1996.
Michell is married to the English playwright Simon David Eden[1] and together they have a daughter called Millie.