Nevins' family was very poor and her mother suffered from an acute form of Raynaud's disease, which resulted in amputations of her limbs, and scleroderma.

Due to the generosity of her uncle, who was a wealthy inventor, Nevins attended private schools growing up.

[1][12] In the 1960s, Nevins began her career at the United States Information Agency in Washington, D.C. She was hired to play a secretary in the USIA TV series called Adventures in English, which was created to teach English vocabulary, which her character repeated, in foreign countries.

[1] Nevins then worked as a researcher, cataloging historical footage about World War II at the Library of Congress.

[13] From 1970 to 1973, after moving back to New York, Nevins apprenticed with director Don Mischer and producer Bob Squire.

Nevins then got a job as a researcher on Al Perlmutter's on the groundbreaking Channel 13 TV show The Great American Dream Machine, eventually working her way up to doing segments and "man on the street" interviews.

[14] Inspired by the film Salesman, she hired Albert and David Maysles to direct parts of the show.

Nevins was a researcher then associate producer for The Great American Dream Machine on National Educational Television.

From 1983 to 1985, Nevins had a production company called Spinning Reels and created the animated educational program Braingames.

Nevin's tenure at HBO saw the rise of sexually-themed programming in the America Undercover documentary series.