After three years of drama school, she headed to Manchester and the Royal Exchange Theater. There, among her other credits, she had leading roles in the plays 'The Deep Man', 'Measure For Measure' and A Streetcar Named Desire', in which she played Stella. At the same time, she was busily carving a niche for herself in numerous BBC television plays, including Cover Her Face, _"Pride and Prejudice" (1979) (mini)_ , 'Unity', 'Hideaway' 'Byron' and the ten-part _"Citadel, The" (1983)(mini)_ She was also a featured regular on the English comedy series Up Line. In 1984, she made her feature film debut in Horton Foote's 1919.



She was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 1995 (1994 season) for Best Actress in a Play for her performance in Sweet Bird of Youth at the Royal National Theatre. She was awarded the 2002 London Critics Circle Theatre Award for Best Actress for her performance in Vincent in Brixton performeda at the Royal National Theatre: Cottesloe and later at Wyndham's Theatre. She was awarded the 2002 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress for her performance in Vincent in Brixton at the Donmar Warehouse in London, England. Though despite a long successful awarding career on-stage, Higgins is perhaps best known in films for her sinister portrayal of Julia in "Hellraiser" (1987) a role she also re-prised in the 1988 sequel, "Hellbound: Hellraiser II".