Russell started out as a cadet reporter for the New Zealand Herald in 1959, then going on to found Thursday, a magazine in 1968. In 1975, she joined South Pacific Television, presenting the television show Speakeasy and reporting for News at Ten. She died on 1 December 2012 after a short illness.
She went on to work on award-winning shows such as Landmarks (1978) and The New Zealand Wars (1996), for which she received an award in scriptwriting. In the 1996 New Year Honours, Russell was made an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for services to journalism, and she became the first recipient of the Academy of Film and Television Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003.
