Her debut solo CD was titled
Skip the Kiss. Kyle Forester, who composed the score for
Breaking Upwards, arranged the music for
Skip the Kiss. Lister-Jones'
New York City theater credits include
Seminar,
The Little Dog Laughed and
The New Group's
The Accomplices. Her screen credits include the political thriller
State of Play,
Salt,
The Other Guys,
The Marconi Bros.,
Day Zero, as well as quirky
independent films such as
Armless,
Arranged, and
Palladio (2005, directed by her father based on the
Jonathan Dee novel). On television she has appeared in
Law & Order,
Law & Order: Criminal Intent,
Law & Order: SVU,
Law & Order: Trial by Jury, on
HBO's
Bored to Death, as Kim on
Adult Swim's
Delocated, as Lily in the cast of the NBC sitcom
Whitney, as Kate in
Friends with Better Lives, as Councilwoman Fawn Moscato in
New Girl, as Jen in
Life in Pieces and as Carolyn Hart in the HBO film
Confirmation. In 2004, Lister-Jones wrote and performed the one-woman, ten-character show
Co-dependence is a Four Letter Word at New York City's
Performance Space 122 (P.S.122). In 2009, Lister-Jones co-starred, co-produced (with
Daryl Wein), and co-wrote (with
Peter Duchan and
Daryl Wein) the independent feature
Breaking Upwards, which explores a young New York couple who, battling
codependency, strategize their own break up. The film was shot in New York on a budget of $15,000, and was featured in a
New York Times article as an example of sweat equity in the independent-film industry. Lister-Jones also wrote the lyrics and performed many of the tracks of the original motion picture sound track.
Breaking Upwards premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in March, 2009. Lister-Jones starred with
Sam Rosen in
Brady Kiernan's romantic drama
Stuck Between Stations (2011) alongside
Josh Hartnett and
Michael Imperioli.
Stuck Between Stations premiered as an official selection of the Viewpoints section at the SVA Theater at the
2011 Tribeca Film Festival in
New York City,
New York, U.S.A. Lister-Jones starred in the independent feature film
Lola Versus (2012), her second project co-written with director
Daryl Wein. Distributed by
Fox Searchlight Pictures,
Lola Versus opened in theaters Summer 2012. It stars
Greta Gerwig, Zoe Lister-Jones,
Bill Pullman,
Hamish Linklater,
Debra Winger,
Joel Kinnaman and
Ebon Moss-Bachrach.
Lola Versus premiered at New York's
Tribeca Film Festival in April 2012. Lister-Jones and Daryl Wein co-wrote
Consumed (2015), their third feature-length collaboration directed by Wein. The political thriller, which focuses on the world of genetically modified organisms, began filming in May 2014 in
Champaign-Urbana, Illinois with Shatterglass Studios. It stars Lister-Jones,
Kunal Nayyar,
Taylor Kinney,
Victor Garber,
Danny Glover,
Griffin Dunne,
Anthony Edwards, and
Beth Grant.
Consumed premiered at the
Los Angeles Film Festival on June 15, 2015. In 2017, Lister-Jones made her directorial debut with the indie film
Band Aid, starring Lister-Jones,
Adam Pally,
Fred Armisen,
Hannah Simone,
Colin Hanks,
Brooklyn Decker,
Majandra Delfino,
Jesse Williams,
Susie Essman,
Ravi Patel,
Jamie Chung,
Chris D’Elia,
Retta, and
Jerry O’Connell. The film features original songs with lyrics, written by Lister-Jones, and music, composed by
Kyle Forester (
Breaking Upwards). In 2020, she wrote and directed
Columbia and
Blumhouse's
The Craft: Legacy, the sequel to the 1996 film
The Craft. In March 2022, it was announced Lister-Jones would write, direct and star in the comedy series
Slip for
The Roku Channel, with
Dakota Johnson set to executive produce under her TeaTime Pictures banner. On December 5, 2023, it was announced that
Slip was nominated twice for the
39th Independent Spirit Awards: Best New Scripted Series and Best Lead Performance in a New Scripted Series. Lister-Jones co-stars in
Pavements, a 2024 American
experimental musical biopic concert film directed by
Alex Ross Perry. It is a documentary/fiction hybrid film about the American indie band
Pavement, incorporating scripted scenes with documentary footage of the band and a musical stage play consisting of songs from their discography. It premiered at the
81st Venice International Film Festival on September 4, 2024 and was released on May 2, 2025. In January 2025, Lister-Jones was cast in
Peacock's
The Miniature Wife, along with
Sofia Rosinsky,
O-T Fagbenle,
Sian Clifford and
Ronny Chieng. In March 2025,
Aasif Mandvi, Rong Fu and
Tricia Black joined the cast.{{cite web|website=
Deadline Hollywood|accessdate=26 March 2025|title= Peacock's 'The Miniature Wife' Casts Aasif Mandvi, Rong Fu & Tricia Black|first= Rosy|last=Cordero ==Personal life==