[1] Sunila was born on 4 September 1952, to Turin and Charles Abeysekera, a public servant and a leader of civil society in Sri Lanka.
[6] Her talent at singing was nurtured during her school days at Bishop’s College, and two of her songs, Udumbara Hinehenawa, from Dharmasena Pathiraja’s Bambaru Avith, and Hemin Sere Piya Vida from Dharmasiri Bandaranayaka’s Hansa Vilak, both sung with T. M. Jayaratne to music composed by Premasiri Khemadasa, are local favorites.
[6][4] As a performer, Sunila’s career included roles in renown Sri Lankan plays and films, including Delovak Athara (Between Two Worlds) (1966) and Golu Hadawatha (The Silent Heart) (1968) by Lester James Peiris; Diriya Mawa (an adaptation of Mother Courage and her Children) (1972) and Makara (Dragon) (1973) by Henry Jayasena; Angara Ganga Gala Basi (Angara River Flows) (1980) and Modara Mola (1980) by Ranjith Dharmakeerthi; Paradige (On the Run) (1980) by Dharmasena Pathiraja; Amanthaya (The Dark End) (1997) by Nihal Fernando.
[7][8][9][10] Sunila was also a cultural critic, and published reviews of local and international films, including in cinema journals such as Cinesith, 14 - Prakashanayata Avakashayak, Chitrapata.
[12] She became head of the INFORM Human Rights Documentation Centre in 1990, at a time when the events of the Sri Lankan Civil War were escalating.
The group monitored human rights abuses on all sides of the conflict, being treated with suspicion by both the ruling government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
[3] In 1994, Abeysekera took a Masters in Women and Development from the International Institute of Social Studies in the Hague, Netherlands, and won that year's award for the best research paper.
[citation needed] Abeysekera was a lesbian and single mother of six children, who she adopted from Tamil friends forced to flee the country.