Cawood grew up in the
Cambridgeshire village of
Maxey. and was educated at
Stamford High School,
Lincolnshire. She also attended the
Royal Ballet School and
Arts Educational Schools London. Between 1995 and 1996, she was a presenter for
Nickelodeon. In 1997, she moved on to co-present
The Girlie Show. From 1998 to 2000, she featured on
Channel 5's
Karaoke quiz show,
Night Fever. She has also presented on
MTV,
Live & Kicking and
Top of the Pops. She was also a panellist on ''
Lily Savage's Blankety Blank on 2001 and Loose Women in 2003. She has also co-presented the midweek and Saturday National Lottery programmes and was also a reporter on the Channel 4 show Richard & Judy''. In addition to this, she presented an information video for
Argos for staff training purposes. In 1998, she took on an acting role, appearing as Angel in
Todd Haynes's glam-rock drama
Velvet Goldmine. In May 2006, it was while she was presenting the
National Lottery Jet Set alongside
Eamonn Holmes that
Fathers 4 Justice invaded the studio; she however carried on and later claimed it was her training on MTV which allowed her to 'ad-lib'. She won a Celebrity episode of
The Weakest Link, beating cricketer
Phil Tufnell in the final. In November 2006, she took part in the BBC's
Celebrity Scissorhands for
Children in Need. She co-presented
BBC Three's coverage of
Comic Relief Does Fame Academy. She also co-commentated on the semi-finals of the
Eurovision Song Contest 2007,
2009 and
2010 alongside
Paddy O'Connell for viewers in the United Kingdom on
BBC Three. Additionally, she starred as the 'hidden' celebrity in an episode of the
CBBC show
Hider in the House. She presented the UK version of the word-based quiz show ''That's the Question'' on
Challenge which began airing on 14 May 2007. She was a panellist on
The Wright Stuff in 2007, and returned in early January 2010. She is also the voice-over on
ITV's
Daily Cooks Challenge hosted by
Antony Worrall Thompson. On 10 November 2010, she and
Alice Cooper co-presented the
Classic Rock Roll of Honour Awards at the
Roundhouse in London. On 6 January 2014, Cawood joined Dave Taylor to present the breakfast show on
Heart East Anglia from 6 am til 10 am. Sarah Cawood decided to leave the show in December 2014 to look after her children. In 2026 she joined the team of Continuity Announcers on the Sky TV channel, "Challenge" ==Personal life==