Alison was born and raised in Auckland, and has a BA in English Literature from Auckland University and a Diploma in Journalism from the (then) AIT in Auckland.
She spent ten years working as a print journalist, mostly for the NZ Herald, based in Auckland, Rotorua and Wellington.
She wrote news and features for the Herald, and specialised in covering major crime, and human interest stories. She is the winner of several Qantas Media Awards, both for print reporting and television producing.
She joined TV3 as producer for 20/20 in 2003, and for the past two years has worked as a producer and journalist with 60 Minutes.