[1][2] In 2017, she was inducted into the Saltire Society's community of Outstanding women of Scotland,[1][3] and was given the Olwen Wymark award by the Writers' Guild of Great Britain in 2021.

[1] Clifford has written several adaptations for the stage, including Anna Karenina, which premiered at Edinburgh's Royal Lyceum in 2005.

[8][9] Clifford's first professional acting was in The Gospel According To Jesus, Queen of Heaven [ru], which she wrote in 2009 as part of the Glasgay!

[2] Clifford is Professor of Theatre in the School of Drama and Creative Industries at Edinburgh’s Queen Margaret University.

[16] Speaking to Katie Doh of Dazed, Clifford said that The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven had begun her social gender transition, where she was "encountering hatred on the street from people shouting abuse at me, saying horrible things, laughing at me.

"[12] In Out of the Ordinary: Representations of LGBT Lives, Clifford spoke about the abuse she experienced, connecting it to what she saw as harsh prohibitions against transgender and gender variant individuals in the Old Testament of the Bible.

She discusses Yahwism, which she says venerates God the Father, replacing the worship of the Mother Goddess in ancient Middle Eastern cultures, but notes that the link is not strong enough to make for academic purposes.

[1] After school, Clifford studied languages (Spanish and Arabic) at the University of St Andrews,[7] with Ferdy Woodward.