Dorothy Thomas joined Ben Greet's company and made her first stage appearance in 1898; while with Greet she played Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Maria in Twelfth Night. In 1902 she was active in Beerbohm Tree's company and appeared with his troupe in a minor role in Richard III, as Miranda in The Tempest and Hero in Much Ado About Nothing. In 1906 she had a small part in Macbeth, but after that no more Shakespeare appears in her credits; she instead took parts in some of the popular contemporary plays of the period, as, for example, The Prisoner of the Bastille.