In 2001, Carmichael starred in her first film, Dead Babies, based on the novel by Martin Amis. She also appeared in Kenneth Branagh's comedy film In the Bleak Midwinter as mad puppetwoman and played the female lead Jane Wells in the period fantasy drama The Infinite Worlds of H. G. Wells. A variety of roles in comedy and drama followed; Hex, Scarlett, One Foot in the Grave, Clocking Off, Cutting It. In 2002, she landed the role of florist Lucy Richards in Coronation Street and was involved in the award-winning Peter Barlow bigamy storyline for two years. She went on to play Melissa Ryan (sister of headteacher Rachel Mason) school drama Waterloo Road (2007). Carmichael played the mother in Danny Stack's short supernatural thriller Origin (2010). In 2014, she played Helen the down-trodden housewife in Jimmy Mc Govern's series Moving On for the BBC and was Hayley Blake, Connie Beauchamp's nemesis in Casualty (2014–15). She plays Clarity Winlove in The Living and The Dead (2015).