Rachel was a model when she was 14 and began acting during her studies at Cambridge University. While there, she formed a theater company named "Talking Tongues", which won the Guardian Award, at the Edinburgh Festival, for its take on Neville Southall's "Washbag". Rachel went on to star on stage in the lauded Sean Mathias revival of Noel Coward's "Design For Living". It was a role that won her a vote for Most Promising Newcomer by the London Critics' Circle.