Acting
Driver's television debut was in a 1991 TV advertisement for Right Guard deodorant. Driver also made her stage debut in 1991, supplementing her income by performing as a jazz vocalist and guitarist. In 1993, she featured in an episode of Maigret, alongside Michael Gambon and Michael Sheen. Also in 1993, she played alongside Jonathan Pryce in the mini-series Mr Wroe's Virgins. She appeared in The Day Today, on British television, with comedian Steve Coogan and for satirist Armando Iannucci, and had small parts in Casualty, The House of Eliott, Lovejoy and Peak Practice.
Driver gained broader public attention when she played the lead role in Circle of Friends in 1995, opposite Chris O'Donnell. She followed this with a minor role in GoldenEye (1995), a supporting role in Sleepers (1996), a leading role in Big Night (1996), and as a co-star in Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), opposite John Cusack.
Driver played opposite Matt Damon as Skylar in the drama Good Will Hunting (1997), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
In 1998, Driver starred in Sandra Goldbacher's film The Governess. That year, she co-starred opposite Christian Slater and Morgan Freeman in the action thriller Hard Rain. Driver has also worked on several animated features, voicing Jane in Disney's 1999 version of Tarzan and Lady Eboshi in the 1999 English-dubbed release of the Japanese film Princess Mononoke. In 2000, she starred in Return to Me. In 2003 and 2004, she had a recurring role on Will & Grace as Lorraine Finster, the nemesis of Karen Walker (Megan Mullally) and daughter of Karen's lover, Lyle Finster (John Cleese).
In March 2007, Driver made her return to television in the FX Network show The Riches. She was nominated for an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award as Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 2007 and 2008, respectively. She was scheduled to appear in The Simpsons Movie, although her appearance was cut from the final version. Driver appeared in the January 2010 episode of Modern Family entitled "Moon Landing". She also starred in the television series The Deep and appeared in Conviction, in the comedy drama Barney's Version, winning a Genie Award for Best Supporting Actress.
In October 2013, Driver started filming for The Crash which was released on 13 January 2017.
Driver landed the lead role in the ABC sitcom Speechless, playing the mother of three children, one of whom has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. The series debuted in the 2016–17 TV season. It was cancelled in May 2019 after three seasons.
In 2026, Driver appeared in the 6-part Canadian drama series The Murder Line, as May Ferguson.