Henley attended Murrah High School in Jackson, followed by Southern Methodist University, where she was a member of the acting ensemble.
[2] From 1975 to 1976, she taught playwriting at the University of Illinois (Urbana) and the Dallas Minority Repertory Theater.
[1] For many years, Henley dated actor, writer and director Stephen Tobolowsky, whom she met while they were students at Southern Methodist University.
[5] Henley has stated that growing up with three sisters was a major inspiration for her play Crimes of the Heart.
Her play Family Week was produced at MCC Theater, New York City in 2010, directed by Jonathan Demme.
[10] Her plays written in the 1980s have been characterized as naturalistic portrayals of the relationship between the inner self and the world,[11] and her characters often are outsiders and nonconformists unable to share their feelings and experiences.