Heather was born and grew up in Moniaive in Dumfriesshire. Having studied in Newcastle and New York she went on to have a career in teaching film and in curating film for a wide range of audiences in the UK and internationally. As Creative Director of the BFI, she is responsible for the BFI National Archive, one of the biggest and most significant collections of film and television and the moving image in the world, which works with archives across the UK - including the Scottish Screen Archive - to engage the people of Britain with their screen heritage and brings British film to audiences worldwide through major international touring programmes. She leads on the London Film Festival and Flare - one of the oldest LGBTQ+ festivals - and BFI Southbank cinemas and the BFI Reuben Library, DVD releasing and a VoD platform offering audiences year round the chance to enjoy and learn from the richest range possible of film and television from around the world, believing that we can transform ourselves and the way we see the world through the diversity of film.