Campbell decided to use the name "Little Nell" as a stage name after her arrival in Britain in the early 1970s with her family. She sold clothes at Kensington Market; her stall was next to Freddie Mercury's. She also worked as a busker and as a soda jerk in a café, where her tap dancing is often noted as the reason why she was cast as Columbia in the original production of "The Rocky Horror Show" following an impromptu audition. She reprised the role in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", released in 1975, and starred as Nurse Ansalong in the 1981 sequel, "Shock Treatment".