Her father worked for the United Nations and she thus lived in various locations while growing up, such as China, Cuba, France, Switzerland, Thailand, the Congo, the U.S. (specifically New York City), and Zambia.
She spent three years at the Glasgow Citizens' Theatre, playing principal boy in their traditional pantomimes, and performing in Noël Coward's Semi-Monde directed by Philip Prowse.
Gilpin is perhaps best known to British television audiences as Sylvia, a precocious Auxiliary Territorial Service member, the niece of Chief Warden Hodges, who attempts unsuccessfully to seduce Private Pike in "The Making of Private Pike" (first broadcast 9 October 1977) in the final series of Dad's Army.
[2] Gilpin also won supporting roles in several British films of the 1970s including Catch Me a Spy (1971), Feelings (1974), The Stud (1978) and The World Is Full of Married Men (1979).
More recently, she has featured as a voice actor in video games, including Neverwinter Nights and James Bond 007: Nightfire.
[3] One of her best known roles is Knight Commander Meredith in Dragon Age II, Master of Orion: Conquer the Stars,[4] in King's Quest as Pillare and Merlwyb Bloefhiswyn in the English version of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, credited as Jean Elizabeth.