She was raised in Edina, Minnesota, and Hingham, Massachusetts, the daughter of a television executive.
The eldest of five, she graduated from Southern Methodist University with a BFA in drama and began her career as an actress in regional theatre (Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Pittsburgh Public Theater, Seattle Repertory, Long Wharf, later starring in New York productions of her plays Joined at the Head, Snowing at Delphi, Where the Truth Lies, and Bobo's Birthday, a one-woman show.
Mel Gussow wrote, "In this, her first full-length play to be presented in New York, Butterfield is revealed as a playwright with a refreshing talent for probing the reality of relationships.
In a manner related to that of Tom Stoppard and John Guare, the work deals enticingly with truth and fiction... a vibrant reflection on life and art."
She wrote a screenplay for Participant Media based on the life of Susie Krabacher, a Playboy centerfold turned savior of the children of Haiti, and developed a film for Lifetime TV based on the life of the teen-aged violinist Tiffany Clay, the subject of a 2009 article in The New York Times.