She graduated from Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School in 1987 with a Diploma in Acting.

She received praise and a nomination for the Australian Film Institute Awards for her leading role in Country Life, starred in Danny Boyle's breakout British hit Shallow Grave,[2] and was nominated for the Canadian Genie Award for her supporting role in The Hanging Garden.

For her role as Claire in Intimacy (2001), directed by Patrice Chéreau, she won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the Berlin Film Festival.

Her husband, Alexander Linklater, wrote about the experience of watching her perform this act on another man.

[4][5] In 2009 she appeared alongside John Simm, Lucy Cohu and Ian Hart in the Duke of York's Theatre production of Andrew Bovell's play Speaking in Tongues.