[2][3] Fairley appeared in a number of British television shows, including The Bill, Holby City and Casualty.

[5] From 2011 to 2013, Fairley starred as Catelyn Stark (née Tully) in the first three seasons of the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones, replacing Jennifer Ehle who played the character in the original, unaired, pilot episode.

[10] In 2019, Fairley led the Virgin Media and Amazon Prime science fiction series The Feed as Meredith Hatfield.

[15] While Fairley has worked on various American projects in the past, she has no love for Hollywood, and the West End theatres remain her home.

[16] She said that while television and movies provide a new challenge by making her "use a different muscle," theatre is where she feels her best work is done, where she started her career, and where she hopes to "end up".