She is best known for her semi-documentary Dreams of a Life, released in 2011, about Joyce Carol Vincent, who died in her North London bedsit in 2003, but was not discovered until 2006.

[4] Morley graduated from Central Saint Martins in 1993 with an honours degree in fine art film and video.

[6] The other degree film was Secondhand Daylight which was set in a fast food restaurant, and in which a group of young people talked about their problems.

It is a documentary based on her years as a troubled youth (age 16-21) during the early eighties in Manchester, in which she spent a lot of her time in the Hacienda.

[3] Five years of her life were lost due to heavy drinking and in the documentary Morley seeks to find out what really happened during this time by interviewing those she knew.

[12][13] In Return Trip (24 mins) Morley tracks down an old friend, Catherine Corcoran, and together they revisit India where they once travelled as teenagers.

This inspired Morley to make the docu-drama Dreams of a Life, where actress Zawe Ashton portrays Joyce Vincent.

In May 2017 it was announced that Morley would be directing Patricia Clarkson in Out of Blue, an adaptation of Martin Amis' Night Train.

[23] The film features Monica Dolan, Kelly MacDonald, and Gina McKee, and is produced with long-time collaborator, Cairo Cannon, alongside Jane Campion, Anne Sheehan, Reno Antoniades and Ameenah Ayub Allen.