Lee worked as a model early in her career, both in Australia and Japan appearing in print and on TV. Her first feature film was
Raw Silk in 1988. She first rose to fame in 1990 for hosting
The Bugs Bunny Show on Australian TV. The
Nine Network series, which had previously not been hosted, featured
Bugs Bunny and other
Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and
Merrie Melodies cartoons, plus occasional other material, such as an interview between Sophie and
Kylie Minogue. She was cast by executive producer David Lyle out of 150 candidates. In December that year the group issued their sole album,
Love In, which Australian
musicologist,
Ian McFarlane, found was "full of syncopated beats and breezy melodies wrapped around tunes". In 1992, she also hosted the TV series
Sex. Lee built on this in the media, speaking out on feminism, sexism and the need for sex education in the
AIDS era. Lee has acted in a number of iconic films, including the Australian comedies ''
Muriel's Wedding, Bootmen and The Castle as well as cult films such as He Died with a Felafel in His Hand and Titsiana Booberini. She is a patron of "Big Screen"
at the National Film and Sound Archive. For her performance in the 1997 film The Castle'', Lee was nominated for the
Australian Film Institute Award for Best Supporting Actress. Lee has appeared in a number of stage productions, including
Mr Kolpert with the
Sydney Theatre Company and the title role in
The Virgin Mim. From 2008, she has hosted
"Natgeo Presents with Sophie Lee" on the National Geographic channel. She is also a commentator on the series
20 to 1. In 2007, Lee branched into writing, releasing a book in 2007 titled
"Alice in La La Land" through
Random House publishing. The book is inspired by her time spent in Hollywood. Also in 2007, she became a columnist for
"Sunday Magazine". In 2009 Sophie released her first children's novel titled
"Edie Amelia and the Monkey Shoe Mystery", a story for 7+ year-olds, published by
Pan Macmillan. The second title in the series is
"Edie Amelia and The Runcible River Fever". ==Personal life==