Her theatre career began in the city of Sheffield at the well-known Crucible Theatre. Her first performance was in Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party. It is Pinter's second full-length play and one of his most frequently performed. She continued on to perform in How The Other Half Loves (Duke of York's Theatre, West End, London), Bash (Citizens Theatre Glasgow), A Day in Dull Armour (Royal Court Theatre Upstairs), Lost and Found (River House Barn), and Gong Donkeys (The Bush Theatre).

Andrea's first film role occurred in 1993 in the musical comedy drama The Token King. Also featured in the film was Samantha Morton, a fellow award-winning and critically-acclaimed English actress. Her other works include: The Arbiter as Kate in 2013, Route Irish in 2010, Club Le Monde as Sarah in 2002, Pandaemonium as Edith Southey in 2000, Threesome as Melanie in 2000, Repeat After Me, The Rover's Return, The Perfect G, and Snorted.

She is most well known for her work as Annie Cabbot on DCI BANKS and DCI Banks: Aftermath, a popular British crime drama that first aired in 2010. The series was based on the Inspector Alan Banks novels by Peter Robinson. In 2013 the series won the drama category of the Royal Television Society Yorkshire Programme Awards. In an interview with Digital Spy, Andrea admitted that she didn't know DCI Banks was going to be a hit. "Not that I'm a pessimist", she states, "but I don't think I believed we'd got the series until I was on set filming it again, because you just don't know! But I'm really pleased. It's a really weird set of emotions because you're really excited and pleased and you film it, and then you're nervous about ti coming out and what people think!" 

The series has been described as very dark, and in the same interview Andrea admitted that such an intense police role has effects on her personal life. "I think physically it sometimes stays with you for a bit. In the first story there's a lot of fire, and I've actually been in a house fire." She elaborates in another interview: "A washing machine caught fire in the absement and the blaze spread to the room where I was sleeping. By the time I woke up, I was surrounded by flames and overcome by smoke. Somehow I got out although, to this day, I'm not sure how I did it."

 "Luckily it's not always serious on set, but I think it does take a while to get over it." She also admits that she's very athletic and enjoys performing her own stunts. "I do it whenever I can- they're like 'Andrea, stop running!' I love to run- that's my blowout. Annie's described as very athletic, so we share that. I love doing all the running stuff- i like getting rid of all the adrenaline and getting into fights and stuff."

Lowe's character, Annie, ended her tenure on the show in Season 5, Episode 5. On Good Morning Britain, Lowe expressed understanding at her character's demise. Much to fans' disapproval, a few episodes later DCI Banks ended its five series run in 2016 when ITV decided not to recommission the series.