Educated at London's Arts Educational School, Lunghi played Hedvig in "The Wild Duck" and Alice in "Alice in Wonderland" on BBC radio while still at school. After graduating from Homerton College, Cambridge and London's Central School of Speech and Drama, she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in the late 1970s, taking leading roles such as Perdita, Celia, and Viola. She had a starring role in the 1979 British short film "Diversion" which was the prototype for Director "James Dearden"'s hit film "Fatal Attraction". In 1981 she landed the role of Guinevere in the film "Excalibur".