"[8] She was part of the Alameda Children's Musical Theater, where she participated in as many as four plays a year, including the roles of Rabbit in Winnie the Pooh, Templeton the rat in Charlotte's Web, and Polly in The Magician's Nephew.

[3] With time, she graduated to community theater, as well as productions at Saint Joseph Notre Dame High School.

It is based on the 2002 graphic novel titled The Diary of a Teenage Girl: An Account in Words and Pictures by Phoebe Gloeckner,[14] which she received as a Christmas present from her sister in 2006.

[3] The story's protagonist, Minnie, is a 15-year-old girl living in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1976 who begins an affair with her mother's 35-year-old boyfriend, Monroe.

[19][8] In January 2018, it was announced that Heller would direct A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, a film that chronicles an interview Tom Junod conducted with child entertainer Fred Rogers for Esquire magazine, and how the encounter impacted the journalist's life.

[3] Heller played a breakout acting role in the Netflix show The Queen's Gambit as Alma Wheatley.

[24][25] Heller is friends with the director Scott Frank and was going to play the part of Beth's biological mother, until the original actress fell out.

"[8] Drawn to storytelling, she progressed from an actor to a writer, finally beginning to direct when she dreaded turning her screenplay for Diary over to someone else.

Fellow director Greta Gerwig, who also was not nominated, included Heller in her list of women who could have been competing for the Golden Globe.

Actress Natalie Portman, as a sign of protest, wore a dress embroidered with the names of these women, including Heller, on the 2020 Oscars red carpet.

[3] Her sister, Emily Heller, is a stand-up comic, as well as a producer and writer for the HBO comedy series Barry.

When asked about her greatest source of inspiration, she answered: "Every member of my family, each of whom is completely their own person, and works on being thoughtful and creative every day.