Born in England, Fiona lived in Kenya and Zimbabwe before immigrating to New Zealand in 1976. After 15 years of working in the television industry as a director and producer, she fell out of love with the medium and realised a long-time ambition to go to art school. Living in London at the time, she began with an Arts Foundation course at Camberwell College of Art before moving to Cornwall to study at Falmouth College of Arts. It was here that Fiona made her first bronze medal The Wave which won First Prize for the British Art Medal Society Student Award in 2005. Much of her early sculptural work drew from the wild coastline and sea, and, realising she was missing the New Zealand landscape Fiona moved home to Auckland. In 2008 she graduated from Elam School of Fine Arts with a BFA (Honours).