Fanny Mills grew up in Hampstead, a stone's throw from the Heath, and was educated locally and then at North London Collegiate School, before attending Oxford University in the 1980s. Her first career was at the V&A Museum, where she worked in the Exhibitions Department helping to create, amongst others, Streetstyle, an exhibition of street subcultures from Zoot Suits to Mods and beyond. After moving to Devon with her husband, she raised three children and joined the theatre scene, working with an eminent local director to write, produce and perform in community plays which examine the themes of exclusion, colonisation, and isolation in the rural community