She grew up in Papua New Guinea and Hong Kong, before returning to New Zealand to complete her schooling at St Cuthbert's College, Auckland.
[citation needed] After graduating from Auckland University, Massey toured New Zealand with an Australian production of Steaming with Liz Burch, Lenore Smith, and Cornelia Frances.
Much of the time in those years was taken up with touring the world with the epic Cloudstreet, Nick Enright and Justin Monjo's adaptation of Tim Winton's novel of the same name.
[citation needed] Massey has performed alongside many of Australia's great actors and actresses including Cate Blanchett (The Seagull), Geoffrey Rush, Barry Otto, Julie Forsythe, and Jacek Koman.
For the Sydney Theatre Company she has appeared in Travesties, Vere (Faith), Perplex, After Dinner by Andrew Bovell, Lucy Kirkwood's play Chimerica, and Moira Buffini's play Dinner[citation needed] Massey has been nominated and won numerous awards for her performances including the Helpmann Award for both Steve Martin's The Underpants (Belvoir)[1] and Steven Sewell's It Just Stopped (Belvoir).