One source reports that she said that the inspiration came from when she visited the set of the BBC children's TV show Crackerjack,[1] but she wrote in 2010 that it was after her father took her to see Doctor Dolittle with Rex Harrison that she asked for the camera.

[2] She read English at Oxford University, and then won a Fulbright scholarship to study film at UCLA.

[2] White won a BAFTA award for best drama serial for her work on the 2005 version of Bleak House.

[1] In film, White directed Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang and most recently Our Kind of Traitor.

[5] She is directing the film version of Australian playwright Suzie Miller's award-winning play Prima Facie, in pre-production as of September 2024[update].