Jo Bo-ah made her acting debut in 2011 with a small role in the daily sitcom I Live in Cheongdam-dong on cable channel jTBC. This was followed by a hosting gig on the audition program Made in U (also on jTBC), and an appearance in the Korean-Japanese co-production Koisuru Maison ~Rainbow Rose~.

In 2012, Jo landed her first major role as a former rich girl who falls for a rocker in tvN’s coming-of-age series Shut Up Flower Boy Band. Later that year, she appeared in her first network TV series with a supporting role in the MBC period drama Horse Doctor.

In 2013, Jo and Kim Woo-bin hosted Mnet’s weekly music show M Countdown for two weeks (on April 4 and 11).

Jo was cast in her first film in 2014, as a troubled, seductive teenager who becomes obsessed with her gym teacher in the erotic thriller Innocent Thing. Back on cable television, she played the leading role in romantic comedy series The Idle Mermaid, a modern retelling of The Little Mermaid set admist the competitive Korean workplace.