After graduating from the National Institute of Dramatic Art, Sydney, in 2008, Parkes-Lockwood played Abigail in The Crucible for the Sydney Theatre Company. She appeared as Dolly Green in the 2011 television series Underbelly: Razor; then in Tough Nuts (2011) and a BBC docudrama The Kangaroo Gang: Thieves by Appointment (2011).
She was a winner of the 2011 Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship for acting and filmmaking.
In 2013, she was cast as Olivia Bligh in the Seven Network's 1950s period drama A Place to Call Home.
In 2015 she appeared as Harriet Edwards in ABC Television's "Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries."
