Elizabeth Stopford was born in Newcastle, England. She graduated from Oxford University with a Masters in English literature. She has specialised in sensitive access to closed communities. Her long-form films include a portfolio of documentaries for the BBC about silence and monastic life; the Grierson award-winning 'I'm Not Dead Yet', about a tussle over inheritance that erupts into an emotional storm akin to a modern-day King Lear; and the BAFTA and Grierson-nominated 'We Need to Talk About Dad', a young man's struggle to get his family to talk about the attempted-murder of his mother.