She played Yvonne Sparrow in the first three series of Goodnight Sweetheart, and Maggie Coles in Firm Friends. She appeared as Marie in two series of Common as Muck. Holmes has appeared in Emmerdale twice: first in 1992 as Lindsay Carmichael, and in 1995 as bar manageress Britt Woods.
In 2001, she played Connie Harper in Merseybeat, and guest starred in the BBC One school drama, Waterloo Road.
From July 2006 she has played Claudie Williams in The Chase, a BBC One drama. Holmes also stars as Genevieve in the ITV drama Life Begins. She was seen in the 2008 series of Shameless and the 2009 production of Lynda La Plante's new ITV crime drama Above Suspicion.
In March 2017, Holmes played Jude, a neonatal nurse, in the BBC1 hospital drama series Casualty and, in April, she played Maggie Kinsella in the Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks.
