Hilferty grew up in a big family in Arlington, Massachusetts, where her greatest source of joy was the library.
[2] As an undergraduate at Syracuse University, Hilferty majored in painting with a minor in fashion design.
[2] She credits her Junior year, studying abroad in London as the experience that led her to designing for the theatre.
"[1] After graduating from Syracuse, Hilferty headed to New York City, where she worked as a freelance costume designer as well as in a costume shop and as a draper for a few years before earning a Master of Fine Arts degree in theater design from the Yale School of Drama.
[3] Her many collaborations include productions with such well-known directors as Joe Mantello, James Lapine, Michael Mayer, Walter Bobbie, Robert Falls, Tony Kushner, Robert Woodruff, JoAnne Akalaitis, the late Garland Wright, James MacDonald, Bartlett Sher, Mark Lamos, Frank Galati, Des McAnuff, Christopher Ashley, Emily Mann, David Jones, Marion McClinton, Neil Pepe, Rebecca Taichman, Gregory Boyd, Laurie Anderson, Doug Wright, Carole Rothman, Oskar Eustis, Garry Hynes, Richard Nelson, Yaël Farber and Athol Fugard (the South African writer with whom she works as set and costume designer and often as co-director since 1980).
In addition to her collaborations with Fugard, she has frequently designed sets and costumes for director and playwright Richard Nelson including premiere productions of his The Apple Family Plays: Scenes From an American Life, The Gabriels: Election Year in the Life of one Family, and Illyria, all at The Public Theater.