She was educated at a Loreto Convent in Wicklow and an Ursuline Convent in Dublin. At 25 years of age she moved to Paris where she studied at the L"École Philippe Gaulier, securing a place at Marcel Marceau"s École Internationale de Mimodrame de Paris.
She lived in Bray, Company.Wicklow, Ireland, from birth until the age of seven. Brady began her career with Balloonatics Theatre Company, touring productions of Hamlet and Finnegans Wake. She then returned to Dublin to perform at the Gate Theatre where she played Adele in House of Bernarda Alba and Natasha in Three Sisters.
After moving to London she played Kate in Brian Friel"s Philadelphia, Here I Come! which later transferred from the King"s Head Theatre to the West End.
Brady"s first professional work in England was in Blinded by the Sun by Stephen Poliakoff at the Royal National Theatre and she has since developed a career based on both Irish and British located theatre, television and film. She also played one of four main characters in the British Broadcasting Corporation"s drama series Mistresses, Siobhan Dillon, a lawyer who struggled to maintain her relationship with husband Harry while also having an affair with her colleague, Dominic, with whom she later went on to have a child.
As well as that, she has appeared in RTÉ"s Proof, and had roles in films such as Words Upon the Window Pane (1994), The Luzhin Defence (2000), How About You (2007) and 32A (2007). Since moving to Los Angeles in 2001, Brady has also appeared in Family Law where she played Naoise O"Niell.
The series ran for 3 years on Columbia Broadcasting System. She has also starred in Nip/Tuck, a United States drama about plastic surgeons where she played Doctor Jordan.
She later starred in Shark as Claire Stark, the divorced ex-wife of James Woods. In 2008 she appeared in Firewall, and the second episode of the British Broadcasting Corporation series Wallander. She also appeared as Meredith Gates, a fleecing art collector who herself is conned in the first series of the British series Hustle.
In 2010, she appeared in the television series The Deep alongside James Nesbitt where she played Catherine.
She also starred in the television series Strike Back as Katie Dartmouth. In 2012 she appeared in the Independent Television series Eternal Law as Mrs Sheringham, an angel who fell in love with a human and became mortal.
She also currently stars in the Sky1 series Sinbad where she plays Taryn. In late 2013 she appeared as the Countess Vera Rossakoff in the television adaptation of The Labours of Hercules, part of the final series of Agatha Christie"s Poirot alongside David Suchet.
On 25 December 2013 Brady starred in the 2013 Christmas special episode The Time of the Doctor of the hit British Broadcasting Corporation science-fiction series Doctor Who as the pivotal character Tasha Lem.
In 2014, she filmed Banished, playing Anne Meredith. She is currently appearing in the Administrative Management College martial arts drama series Into the Badlands as Lydia. Photographic model
In the late 1980s Brady posed for a series of photographic figure studies that were published in The Illustrator"s Figure Reference Manual (1987).
An image of Brady posing in her own dress was used by the artist Jack Vettriano as the focal subject of The Singing Butler.
