Born in Belfast in 1981, Rachel got her start on the stage as a child via the cabaret show circuit with her father and sister. As a kid she was featured on multiple competition shows including the Irish version of Popstars and Michael Barrymore’s My Kind of Music.

After training in London at the Royal Academy of Music, Rachel was chosen as a finalist on the 2008 Andrew Lloyd Webber-judged series I’d Do Anything where she competed alongside actors like Samantha Barks and Jessie Buckley.

In late 2008 Rachel’s West End debut came as Meat in We Will Rock You. Following a year in that role, she was cast to replace Alexia Khadime as Elphaba in Wicked on the West End. Rachel led Wicked in London for over two years, making her the UK’s longest-running Elphaba. After leaving the West End production in 2012 she went on to be Broadway’s Elphaba in 2015 before returning to the West End Wicked stage in 2017 in the production’s 10th anniversary cast. Beyond Wicked, Rachel has starred in Farragut North in London, John & Jen at the Southwark Playhouse, and on Broadway in Sting’s The Last Ship.

In 2018, Rachel joined the original West End cast of Come From Away as Beverley and others. For this performance she received a Laurence Olivier award nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical. Rachel then brought this performance to Broadway when Come From Away reopened in New York in 2021.

Rachel played Annie Oakley in an Annie Get Your Gun concert at the London Palladium in early 2023.

Rachel’s first album for Westway will be released in October 2023 and will be an adult contemporary album with undertones of americana fused with Irish Celtic folk and of course musical theatre. With a few original songs, the album will mainly comprise of new, organic covers which will include; Whole of the Moon, Party of One, Happier Than Ever, It’s Time and from musical theatre, He’s My Boy (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie), Everything Changes (Waitress) and a duet with composer and singer Jason Robert Brown of one of his own songs.