Training

She trained as an actor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama^[4] from 2000 to 2003. While there she performed in As You Like It, Confusions and The Seagull. She was asked to return after graduating to play Julia Tesman in Hedda Gabler with Hayley Atwell.

Audio

Quinlan is best known for her work on radio. She has played various characters, including interviewer Patsy Straightwoman, in all nine series of John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme on Radio 4. From 2018-2019 she played the lead, Alexandra Palisades, in both series of Agendum on Radio 4^[5]. In 2024 she will appear in her first Big Finish Doctor Who audio drama.

Theatre

In 2023 Quinlan played Elizabeth Condell and Emilia Lanier in The Book of Will by Lauren Gunderson at Shakespeare North and the Bolton Octagon. She has also appeared Orpheus Descending by Tennessee Wiliiams and spent several seasons with the Lamb Players, where she has played Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, Viola in Twelfth Night, Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Rosaline in Love's Labour's Lost.

Television

Her television work includes EastEnders, Home^[6], and Yonderland.

Writing

Quinlan has also written comedy for television and radio, on shows such as Tracey Ullman's Show, That Mitchell and Webb Sound and The Late Edition. From 2006-2009, Quinlan became a regular panellist on The News Quiz, where she and chairman Sandi Toksvig often bantered about their respective heights. During this period she also wrote comment pieces for New Humanist, The Royal Society of Arts, The Tablet and The Guardian.^[7] As of 2024 she is working with Joel Morris and Adam Tandy on a new television project.

Podcasting

Quinlan is co-host, with Andy Stanton, of Ask the Nincompoops^[8], a podcast for children where the two play supposedly brilliant professors of everything and answer questions from young listeners. Badly. It has been cited as one of the best podcasts for children by Huffington Post^[9] and was nominated for two awards at the 2020 British Podcast Awards^[10].

She has co-hosted The Guilty Feminist^[11], and appeared as a guest on Griefcast, Comfort Blanket, Rule of Three, Worst Foot Forward and Always There, among others. Despite Margaret Cabourn Smith asking more than once, Quinlan refuses to go on Crushed by Margaret Cabourn Smith^[12], as she's too scared.

Other ventures

For a short time after university Quinlan worked as a stand-up comedian, coming runner-up in So You Think You're Funny and the BBC New Comedy Award in 1998.

Quinlan trained as a teacher at Jesus College, Cambridge.

During the Covid-19 lockdowns in the UK, Quinlan began driving an ambulance for the London Ambulance Service.