She graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1973 with a master's degree in theater arts, and thereafter began an acting career.

[1] She also directed plays at the Mark Taper Forum, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and the Humana Festival.

[2] Her work earned her recognition from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, the Ovation Awards and the NAACP.

[2] In 2008, she was attached to direct a Broadway revival of for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf, but the production was scrapped due to a lack of funding.

[4] Finney directed plays across the United States, and her last credit was a 2023 production of Clyde's at The Ensemble Theatre in Houston.