In 2011, Manson portrayed Leah in the third series of Misfits and Emma 'Whirly' Tyson in the BBC drama Young James Herriot.

Manson played Ginger Corrigan in the 2010 adaptation of Agatha Christie's Marple: The Pale Horse, and also played Fleur Morgan in Outcasts, an eight-part series by Kudos for BBC One. She appeared as the vampire Daisy Hannigan-Spiteri in series two of Being Human, alongside Desperate Romantics co-star Aidan Turner. Manson played Lizzie Siddal, muse, wife and lover of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, in the BBC Two period drama Desperate Romantics. She has guest-starred in episodes of Doctors, The Bill and My Family. On television, she played Alice Guppy in two episodes of Torchwood, and appeared as Abby Evans in nine episodes of Casualty. Manson has lent her voice to the radio dramas Lost in Plain Sight, The Summer Walking and The Dead Hour.

Manson made her film debut in Pumpkinhead: Blood Feud, and has also appeared in the horror film Blood Monkey and the short film Smile Emily. She trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama, leaving early to film Pumpkinhead: Blood Feud in Romania. She attended Stage Coach, a Saturday drama school, before leaving home for London at the age of seventeen. Born and brought up in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, Manson has one sister, Ailsa Manson and one brother, James Manson, all of Sept Manson of Clan Gunn.

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