Jessica teamed up with life-long friend and future Spaced co-star Katy Carmichael in a double-act called The Liz Hurleys, where they performed, dressed funnily enough as Liz Hurley.
In 1993 Jessica appeared in the Disney film Swing Kids, filming for two months in Prague with Kenneth Branagh and Christian Bale. After completing this movie she then went on to appear in Peter Greenaway's film the Baby of Macon.
In 1995 Katy convinced Jessica to come with her to an audition she was going to for a TV show called Six Pairs Of Pants. Jessica was not going to audition but stood out when she performed a monolog Simon Pegg had written about a man who thought he was Peter Parker and Jessica got a part in the show. The cast consisted of Katy Carmichael, Sally Phillips, Neil Mullarkey, Simon Schatzberger, Simon Pegg and Jessica. During the filming she and Simon became friends and in 1997 when he was starting to work on a new TV show called Asylum and they needed another cast member he immediately thought of Jessica. Asylum ran for 1 season on Paramount and stared Julian Barratt, Adam Bloom, Norman Lovett along with Jessica and Simon and was directed by Edgar Wright.After a variety of television work including Channel 4's Armstrong and Miller, the nursing drama Staying Alive and the 1995 production of Blithe Spirit at the York Theatre Royal Jessica went on to shine in the supporting role of neighbour Cheryl in Caroline Aherne and Craig Cash's 1997 sitcom The Royle Family.
Inspired by the lack of strong female roles being portrayed in the media at the time, Jessica started again to work with Simon Pegg to create the amazing sitcom Spaced and in 1999 they began filming the first season of the show. In 2000 Jessica won Best Female Comedy Newcomer at the British Comedy Awards and a second series of Spaced was broadcast in 2001 which she followed by scooping Best Actress at the British Comedy Awards in 2002. The following year she was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for her performance in The Night Heron.
Since then, Jessica has appeared in a number of film and television roles including the highly acclaimed BBC Film Tomorrow La Scala, the feature films Shaun of the Dead, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason and in 2006 she reprised the role of Cheryl in the one off Royle Family Special. In 2006 Jessica also started in the improvised comedy movie Confetti with Martin Freeman.
2007 saw Jessica working on a number of different projects including the beautifully conceived Four Last Songs, Son of Rambow and Magicians. As well as these amazing films Jessica also stared in the incredible Doctor Who episodes Human Nature and Family of Blood where she became friends with David Tennant. He then went on to appear in the BBC television movie Jessica had written called Learners which premiered on the BBC on the 11th November 2007.
2008 has seen Jessica star in the UK comedy film Faintheart directed by Vito Rocco. With Nick Ball, Ewen Bremner, Calum Chalmers which is a romantic comedy set in the world of battle reactors. Jessica has also performed at a number of stand-up gigs including Stand Up Get Down in aid of Action For Children and event which she also organised.
Jessica can currently be seen performing in The Norman Conquests at the Old Vic and is in the process of writing a comedy series with Julia Davis called Peppertits that is due to go into production in 2009.
