McLeod attended St Peter's Collegiate Girls' School and started singing in her late teens. She commenced a university course studying to become a stockbroker. In 1990 during a holiday, with friends at a Bali night club, she was invited to perform with a local band. McLeod later remembered "I could already play a bit of guitar by then and did little more than sing and play to my buddies at home." Upon return to Adelaide she left uni and formed her first group, Fallen Down Monster (FDM). She displayed her rock-chick characteristics and honed her vocal and guitar skills, and fun-loving, energetic stage presence. FDM performed indie band covers, McLeod wrote original tracks which were not recorded.
Late in 1994 she joined Chris Tennent to form an indie guitar rock band, Hell's Kitchen, which later became the Superjesus. Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, described McLeod's "captivating voice and melodic rhythm guitar." In May 1996 the group issued their debut four-track extended play, Eight Step Rail, with all the tracks co-written by McLeod with her band mates. Jonathan Lewis of AllMusic noticed McLeod's singing: "Sounding like a cross between Liz Phair and Catatonia's Cerys Matthews, McLeod's voice was a major drawcard; strong, confident and rarely lapsing into the girlishness that characterized some of the Superjesus' contemporaries."
At the ARIA Music Awards of 1997 the Superjesus won Best New Talent for Eight Step Rail and Breakthrough Artist – Single for "Shut My Eyes" / "Eight Step Rail". For the Superjesus' first album, Sumo (June 1998), McLeod and Tennent co-wrote most of the tracks. The group released two more albums, Jet Age (October 2000) and Rock Music(May 2003), before they split in 2004.
In 2005 Sarah McLeod launched her solo career, she signed with Festival Mushroom Records, releasing her first single, "Let's Get Together", in May. Julianne Galvin of Faster Louder described her solo material "Some of the new songs have been described as more narrative in style than some of her previous work"; McLeod told Galvin "'I used to just sing because there had to be words', she says of her songwriting ability circa Superjesus, 'whereas now, I’m more into the lyrics'." Her debut solo album, Beauty Was a Tiger, followed in September that year; it was co-produced by McLeod with Matt Lovell. All the tracks on the album were written either by McLeod or with Chris Peters, bass player from the Detroit band, Electric Six. It peaked at No. 31 on the ARIA Albums Chart. For touring her backing band, the Black Diamond Express, consisted of Patch Brown (guitar), Grant Fitzpatrick (bass guitar), Stu Hunter (keyboards) and Mick Skelton (drums).
Following the release of another single, "Private School Kid" (July 2005) – a duet with Chris Cheney from The Living End – McLeod parted ways with Mushroom Festival Records. It peaked at No. 33 on the ARIA Singles Chart. During 2006 she released two more singles, "All But Gone" as an independent EP, and "He Doesn't Love You"; both included remixes. In October 2006, the Hook n Sling remix of "He Doesn't Love You" reached No. 1 on the ARIA Club Charts. It was released in the United Kingdom and the US where it "became a smash hit in dance clubs". During 2006 McLeod performed solo acoustic gigs which led to an Australian tour, playing tracks from Beauty Was a Tiger, some old Superjesus material and a few cover versions.
In October 2006 Sarah McLeod released her second solo album, Live & Acoustic. It was issued in the United States in February 2007.[19] McLeod worked on a follow up album. She spent much of 2007 and 2008 first travelling in the US and then living in London, where she recorded songs for the album. She previewed a track, "Love Will Conquer All", on her MySpace page in 2007. Subsequently other tracks were released online, "Sometimes Love" and "No One's Ever Died of a Broken Heart". In October 2008 McLeod worked on more demos and added a cover of "Leaving on a Jetplane" to her website. In November 2009 she released a single, "Tell Your Story Walking", an electronic, New Wave sound of the 1980s music which became a surprise hit in the club scene. The second single, "White Horse", was a hit in clubs both in Australia and around the world
In 2009 Sarah McLeod posted further material including "Love to Last". In August 2010 she released a single, "Double R", with remixes by John Roman, Autoerotique and Grandtheft. It was followed by a cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark". Her third album, Madness, appeared in November that year, which included both "Double R" and "Dancing in the Dark". McLeod, using the pseudonym Sammie Scream, started a new group, Screaming Bikini, which issued a single, "Easy", followed by their debut album self-titled album in May 2011.
From November 2012 the Superjesus reunited, initially for a concert in Adelaide in the following February; it was followed by an Australian tour in May and June 2013. In 2013 McLeod released an EP, 96% Love Song Book, under her own name. It was influenced by her love of 1950s and 1960s music and contained an a capella, barber shop quartet track, "The Greatest Pretender". In 2014 McLeod and Jeff Martin (of the Tea Party) released a duet single, "Man the Life Boats"; they toured Australia to promote it.
In 2015 the Superjesus combined with Baby Animals for a co-headlining tour, She Who Rocks, during May to June. The Superjesus issued their first single in 12 years, "The Setting Sun", in June.
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