She was a member of the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain and trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Bailey's television work includes Inspector Morse, Casualty, The Bill, Holby City, Midsomer Murders, Agatha Christie's Poirot, A Touch of Frost, Dalziel and Pascoe, Big Deal, Boon, The Bretts, The Ruth Rendell Mysteries, No More Dying Then, Stay Lucky, Heat of the Sun, Micawber, New Tricks, Monday Monday, Being Human and Case Histories.

She has also appeared in many single TV dramas and films including Woyzeck, Way Upstream, Zackharov, Raspberry, Coppers, Derailed, Toast and Jane Austen's Persuasion.

She played Jill in the BBC Three comedy series Him and Her, Sue in The Trials of Jimmy Rose, Ingrid in Temple, Cara in Britannia for Sky.

[citation needed] She has most recently appeared in Shakespeare and Hathaway, Endeavour and the Netflix dramas Obsession and All the Light We Cannot See.