Hurley parlayed her training at the London Studio Centre into theatre work and made her screen debut at the age of 21 in Bruce Beresford's movie Aria in 1987. Several roles in television and the film Remando al viento (1987) with young actor (and future beau) Hugh Grant soon followed.  Continuing her streak of success, Hurley drew accolades for her portrayal of the title role of Christabel Bielenberg in the BBC mini-serial Christabel in 1988. Then, in 1992, Hurley made her Hollywood film debut as a terrorist in the Wesley Snipes action drama Passenger 57. Despite this appearance, Hurley was disappointed in the lack of meaty roles she received after two years of auditioning in Hollywood, so she returned to England.

     Unbeknownst to Hurley, her fame was soon to skyrocket for two reasons. Reason number one was the London premiere of Four Weddings and a Funeral (Grant's 1994
movie), where Hurley wowed the crowd by wearing a black Versace dress that was held together by nothing more than safety pins. (You can find several pictures of that dress on this site at the Pictures section, FYI.) Hurley says, "That dress was a favor from Versace because I couldn't afford to buy one. His people told me they didn't have any evening wear, but there was one item left in their press office. So I tried it on and that was it." 

     Reason number two for Hurley's fame taking off was her becoming the spokesmodel representing top cosmetics house Estée Lauder. (Estée Lauder signed her shortly after the Versace safety-pin dress outing.) This assignment, along with the Hugh Grant/Divine Brown incident, thrust Hurley squarely into the public eye. Despite the chaos created by the incident, Hurley and Grant founded Simian Films ("Simian" because the two feel that Grant resembles a monkey) in partnership with Castle Rock Entertainment in 1994. Soon afterwards, Hurley, Simian's Head of Development, discovered the script for and produced the film Extreme Measures (1996), starring Hugh Grant, Gene Hackman, and Sarah Jessica Parker. Extreme Measures, a medical mystery thriller, is Simian Films' first production and a departure from what Hurley and
Grant had planned on doing in their first production -- comedy. Hurley found out about Extreme Measures after Simian Films was established, during her first meeting with executives from Castle Rock Entertainment. Elizabeth liked the story and read Tony Gilroy's script eagerly. "I found the moral intricacies of the script so complex that even now, nearly two years after reading the first draft, I still can't decide exactly where I stand on the ethical issues," said Hurley during an interview. 

     Since producing Extreme Measures, the well-rounded Hurley has continued to be very busy with a plethora of projects. The film Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997) was probably the biggest and and most successful of those projects. On Austin Powers' impact on her career, Hurley says ". . . thanks to Austin Powers, I'm earning more money acting than I have before and getting better scripts. But that film was not what I feel comes naturally to me.  I'm actually a more melancholy, more serious actress. I mean, in England I got known for very sad, dramatic, quite heavy emotional BBC dramas." 

     Hurley has appeared in several movies since portraying the "shagadelic" Vanessa Kensington in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. She had a major role in the film Dangerous Ground in 1997. After a brief absence from the big screen in 1998, Hurley reappeared with a vengeance. She starred in several films that were released within a year of each other -- Permanent Midnight (Fall 1998), My Favorite Martian (Spring 1999), Ed TV (Spring 1999), and Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me (Summer 1999). In addition to her starring roles in the above movies, Hurley served as a producer of Simian Film's second film, Mickey Blue-Eyes, which premiered Fall 1999. And, to top it all off, Hurley is still modeling for Estée Lauder.