Her films over the decades have frequently featured the lives of high-profile figures, including Doris Lessing, Toni Morrison, Diana Athill, Judith Kerr, Salman Rushdie, Vivian Maier, Louise Bourgeois and Tom Stoppard.
Jill Nicholls attended Hemel Hempstead Grammar School and read English at Newnham College, Cambridge (1971–74), gaining a first-class degree.
[3] She subsequently joined the collective of feminist magazine Spare Rib, working there as a journalist (editing the news pages)[5] between 1974 and 1980.
[3][4] Beginning in 1979, she and Angela Phillips wrote a column called "Omen" for The Guardian, giving news from a feminist point of view.
[3][10] The subjects of some of her award-winning films in the series include Allen Toussaint,[11] Salman Rushdie,[12] and Vivian Maier.