After writing for comedy shows and appearing in the medical drama Casualty (2009–2010), he made his feature directorial debut with Black Pond (2011).

He starred in the Channel 4 comedy-drama Flowers (2016–2018), the BBC Two series Defending the Guilty (2018–2019), and Giri/Haji (2019), the latter of which earned him a British Academy Television Award.

Sharpe went on to direct the film The Electrical Life of Louis Wain and the Sky Atlantic miniseries Landscapers (both 2021).

[13][14] In 2022, Sharpe joined the cast of the HBO series The White Lotus in its second season, set in Sicily, as Ethan Spiller, a newly wealthy tech entrepreneur on vacation.

[16] In 2023, Sharpe was announced as the director of the film adaptation of Japanese Breakfast frontwoman Michelle Zauner's memoir, Crying in H Mart.