Kenny made her professional debut in the 2007
BBC television drama
Coming Down the Mountain, and, in 2009, she made her film debut in Phil Claydon's
Lesbian Vampire Killers. She played the role of Kate in an improvisational
BBC production called
Freefall written and directed by
Dominic Savage, which was screened in 2009. In January 2010, Kenny began her role in the
EastEnders spin-off
EastEnders: E20 as
Zsa Zsa Carter as well as in
EastEnders itself. Kenny was cast in the role of Zsa Zsa after writing the second episode of
EastEnders: E20. A second series of
EastEnders: E20 was announced in April 2010, with Kenny returning as a writer, although it was announced the following month that Zsa Zsa would be written out of
EastEnders so Kenny could pursue further acting roles. She made her last appearance on 30 September 2010. In 2010, Kenny was painted by
Rolf Harris as
Titania from
Shakespeare's ''
A Midsummer Night's Dream'' for an edition of BBC TV's
Arena ("Rolf Harris Paints His Dream"). Kenny wrote a further episode of
EastEnders: E20 for series three in 2011 and was selected as the youngest ever writer for the
BBC Writers Academy where she trained to write for programmes such as
EastEnders,
Casualty,
Holby City, and
Doctors. Her first
EastEnders episode as a writer was broadcast on 8 May 2012. She joined the cast of
E4's
Beaver Falls for its second series playing the character Hope. The second series began airing in early August 2012 with the final episode of the series airing in early September 2012. It was announced on 22 September 2012 that the drama would not be recommissioned. In 2011, she was cast as Danielle Reeves in the
BBC Three dramedy Pramface alongside her
Beaver Falls co-star
Scarlett Alice Johnson.
Pramface piloted in late February 2012 and was met with good reception, so much so the second series was commissioned by the BBC before the first series had even aired. She reprised her role for the second series which began airing in the new year of 2013 and was broadcast a second time on
BBC One throughout the summer of 2013. She reprised her role again for a third series which commenced airing in late February 2014. She played the role of Rachel alongside
Matthew Crosby,
Ben Clark and
Tom Parry in the first series of BBC Three's
sitcom Badults which aired in the summer of 2013. A second series was commissioned but it was announced that Kenny would not feature in it. In 2016, Emer Kenny worked as a scriptwriter on Irish soap
Red Rock for a few episodes. In 2017, she joined the cast of the BBC TV series
Father Brown as Penelope "Bunty" Windermere, the wayward niece of Lady Felicia. Kenny wrote the screenplay for and co-starred in the 2022 ITV crime drama
Karen Pirie, adapted from the Karen Pirie novels of
Val McDermid. She co-wrote the 2025 second series with Gillian Roger Park. Kenny voiced Callie Mayer in the
Braking Point story mode of
F1 23, a role she later reprised in
F1 25. == Awards and nominations ==