Rickman has worked extensively with various British repertory and experimental theater groups including The Seagull and Snoo Wilson's The Grass Widow at the Royal Court, and has appeared three times at the Edinburgh International Festival.

While working with the Royal Shakespeare Company he starred in, among other things, As You Like It. He made a particular impression as the male lead in the 1985 Royal Shakespeare Company production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses. In 1986 he earned critical and popular acclaim as the elegant and heartless seducer. When the show came across the Atlantic in 1986, Rickman came with it to Broadway and there earned a Tony Award nomination for his performance.

To television audiences he also became known as Mr. Slope in the BBC's 1980s adaptation of Barchester Towers.

He played future Irish Taoiseach and president Éamon de Valera in the film Michael Collins alongside Liam Neeson. While playing romantic leads in British movies (Colonel Brandon in Sense and Sensibility and Truly, Madly, Deeply), he was generally typecast in Hollywood movies as an over-the-top villain (Hans Gruber in Die Hard and the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves). He has also demonstrated considerable talent as a comedy actor in films such as Galaxy Quest, Dogma, and Love Actually. He won a Golden Globe and an Emmy for his excellent performance as Rasputin in 1996. He is also the potions professor Severus Snape in the Harry Potter movies. More recently, Rickman was cast as the voice of Marvin in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie. Coincidentally, Rickman and David Learner, who occupied Marvin's costume for the TV adaptation and stage shows, studied together at the RADA. Rickman will continue playing the Potions Master Severus Snape in the 5th installment, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which is currently being filmed in England. He will also be very busy this year with Snow Cake (with Sigourney Weaver & Carrie-Anne Moss) which will have its debut at the Berlinale and Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (with Dustin Hoffman), directed by Tom Tykwer.

Alan Rickman has performed on stage in Noel Coward's romantic comedy Private Lives, which transferred to Broadway after its successful run in London at the Albery Theatre and ended in September 2002. Rickman had reunited with his Les Liaisons Dangereuses co-star, Lindsay Duncan, and director, Howard Davies for this Tony Award winning production.

His previous stage performance was as Marc Antony, opposite Helen Mirren as Cleopatra, in the Royal National Theatre's production of Antony and Cleopatra at the Olivier Theatre in London, which ran October 20th through December 3rd, 1998. Before that, he performed in Yukio Ninagawa's Tango at the End of Winter in London's West End and the Riverside Studio production of Hamlet in 1991, directed by Robert Sturua. And even directing The Winter Guest at London's Almeida Theatre in 1995 (of which he also directed the film version in 1996 starring Emma Thompson and her real life mother Phyllida Law).

Rickman has also been featured in several musical works - most notably in a song composed by the English songwriter Adam Leonard. Moreover, the actor played a ‘Master of Ceremonies’ part in announcing the various instruments in Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells II on the track 'The Bell'. Mr. Rickman was also one of the many artists who recited Shakespearian sonnets on the 2002-released When Love Speaks CD, and is also featured prominently in a Texas music-video entitled "In Demand", which premiered on Europe MTV in August 2000.