Roles followed in
Casualty,
Doctors and
Dalziel and Pascoe. Grainger played Megan Boothe in
Where the Heart Is, Stacey Appleyard in
Waterloo Road and Sophia in
Merlin. In 2011, she appeared in the television series
The Borgias, playing
Lucrezia Borgia opposite
Jeremy Irons as
Pope Alexander VI. The series, created by
Neil Jordan and shot in
Hungary, ran for three seasons. After her role as Emily in the film
The Scouting Book for Boys (2009), she played one of the Rivers sisters opposite
Mia Wasikowska and
Michael Fassbender in
Cary Fukunaga's 2011 retelling of
Jane Eyre, and had a minor role in
Bel Ami alongside
Robert Pattinson and
Uma Thurman. In June 2011, she was cast in the leading role of
Estella in
Mike Newell's film adaptation of
Great Expectations, opposite
Jeremy Irvine and
Helena Bonham Carter. The movie, screened at
Toronto International Film Festival 2012, had its European premiere as the closing night film of the
BFI London Film Festival. She had a minor role in the 2012 film
Anna Karenina as Baroness Shilton. On stage, in 2013 she appeared in
Disassociation, a play by
Luke Bailey, at
The Lowry in
Salford. In the same year, she played
Bonnie Parker in the 2013 TV mini-series
Bonnie & Clyde. She was one of the female leads in the 2014 film
The Riot Club, adapted from the play
Posh, alongside
Max Irons. In the same year, she appeared on stage in
Anton Chekhov's play
Three Sisters at the
Southwark Playhouse. Grainger played
Cinderella's stepsister
Anastasia Tremaine in
Kenneth Branagh's 2015 film version of
Cinderella. In 2016, Grainger starred in Disney's
The Finest Hours. On 20 June 2016,
World Refugee Day, Grainger, as well as
Jack O'Connell, featured in a film from the
United Nations' refugee agency
UNHCR to help raise awareness of the global
refugee crisis. The film, titled
Home, has a family take a reverse migration into the middle of a war zone. It is inspired by primary accounts of refugees, and is part of UNHCR's #WithRefugees campaign, which also includes a petition to governments to expand asylum to provide further shelter, integrating job opportunities, and education.
Home, written and directed by
Daniel Mulloy, went on to win a
BAFTA Award and a Gold Lion at
Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity among many other awards. In 2017, she appeared in a film adaptation of the novel
Tulip Fever alongside
Alicia Vikander. From 2017, she plays Robin Ellacott in the TV series
Strike (aired in the
United States and
Canada as
C.B. Strike) based on the novels by
J. K. Rowling. Grainger played one of the two lead female roles in the feature film
Animals, along with
Alia Shawkat. Based on the novel by
Emma Jane Unsworth, who also wrote the script, the film was directed by
Sophie Hyde and filmed in
Dublin. In 2018, she co-starred in the film
Tell It to the Bees alongside
Anna Paquin, an adaptation of the 2009 novel of the same name by
Fiona Shaw. Since 2019, Grainger stars in the BBC conspiracy thriller
The Capture. ==Personal life==