Rebel’s career started on the Sydney stages in the early 2000s where she often wrote and produced her own work. This led to various television shows in Australia where she quickly became the most prominent female voice in Australian comedy. In 2008, Rebel wrote, produced, and starred in her own musical television series Bogan Pride for SBS.

In 2010 Rebel moved to the US with her role in the cult classic Bridesmaids. Rebel is perhaps most known internationally for playing the role of FAT AMY in the Pitch Perfect trilogy, which are the highest-grossing musical comedy films of all time. Rebel’s other feature credits include the Academy Award-winning Jojo Rabbit, Isn’t It Romantic, How To Be Single, and The Hustle.

In 2022 she starred in the hit cheerleading comedy Senior Year on Netflix which was watched by over 89 million unique Netflix accounts in its first ten days of release internationally. In 2024 Rebel’s memoir Rebel Rising instantly became a New York Times (US), Sunday Times (UK) and Australian best-seller. The Rebel Rising audiobook also made the New York Times best-seller list and was ranked as one of the top celebrity memoirs listened to globally in 2024 on platforms such as Audible and Spotify.

Rebel is an alumna and now patron of The Australian Theatre for Young People whose home base in Sydney is called ‘The Rebel Theatre’, named after her. The inaugural production in this theatre was a workshop production of The Deb which originated out of Wilson’s annual scholarship program that aims to mentor emerging young Australian talent. Rebel has now turned The Deb into a feature film which marks her directorial debut. The film closed the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival in September 2024 with glowing reviews. It is due to be released worldwide in late 2025. Wilson also co-wrote and produced the film, is a contributing songwriter and co-stars as the town’s villainous hairdresser ‘Janette.’

Rebel will next be seen in the action-comedy Bride Hard with recent Oscar winner Da’Vine Joy Randolph, directed by Simon West.