In his 1987 movie debut, Pickard played Mio, the lead role in Mio in the Land of Faraway. There he is credited as Nicholas Pickard. In 1994, Pickard played a minor role in EastEnders, appearing as a young homeless boy. He appeared in music videos for Mike + The Mechanics ("Over My Shoulder") and Roxette ("Almost Unreal").
He landed the role of Tony Hutchinson in Hollyoaks in 1995 and has been playing him ever since. In 2017, Pickard won the British Soap Award for Outstanding Achievement for 22 years of playing Tony. This was the first time an actor/actress from Hollyoaks had received the Outstanding Achievement award.
In Hollyoaks: The Good, The Bad & The Gorgeous (2009), Pickard performs as Jack Dawson in a parody of Titanic, and dances and sings in the Grease parody.
Pickard participated in the 2011 series of Celebrity MasterChef where he reached the final but lost out to Phil Vickery.
