[1] Born in Batley, Brabin was an actress and television writer prior to entering politics, appearing in several British soap operas including Coronation Street, Doctors, EastEnders, Casualty and Emmerdale.

She was appointed as Shadow Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport by Jeremy Corbyn in January 2020, succeeding former Deputy Labour Leader Tom Watson.

[3] Brabin played clumsy waitress Sandra opposite David Jason in A Bit of a Do, Tricia Armstrong in Coronation Street from 1994 to 1997, and Ginny in three series of Richard Harris's Outside Edge.

She appeared in EastEnders as Roxy Drake, The Ghost Hunter as Mrs Oliver, Love + Hate as Gaynor, and in an episode of Midsomer Murders ("Dead Letters", 2006).

In 2012, she played Maggie, a mother who comes to realise she is one of a race of aliens, in artist Shezad Dawood’s first feature, the sci-fi art-house film Piercing Brightness.

With her mentor Elizabeth Karlsen, the producer of Made in Dagenham, she was involved on the romantic comedy feature Father August for the prestigious She Writes programme, with Minkie Spiro attached to direct.

Brabin publicly endorsed the Labour Party at the 1997 general election, writing an article for the Labour-supporting Daily Mirror newspaper explaining that her father-in-law had died on a hospital trolley while waiting to see a doctor.

[22] She was appointed as Shadow Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in January 2020 after the previous holder, Tom Watson stood down at the 2019 general election.

[24] In March 2021, a teacher at Batley Grammar School showed cartoons depicting Muhammad, the founder of Islam, from the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo during a religious studies lesson.

[27] Brabin responded to this by stating that she condemned the threats towards the teacher, welcomed the apology given by the school, and urged "all involved to work together and calm the situation".

However, Brabin had to resign her Batley and Spen seat, triggering a by-election,[1] as Electoral Commission rules make the police and crime responsibilities in the role incompatible with being an MP.