Heller was born in North London as the youngest of four children of a German-Jewish immigrant, Lukas Heller, who was also a successful screenwriter. Her mother was instrumental in keeping up the Labour Party's "Save London Transport Campaign". Heller read English at St Anne's College, Oxford, and then went on to Columbia University, New York.

Heller then returned to London to work as a columnist. She now lives in New York City, writes for the Daily Telegraph, and contributes to The New Yorker and other magazines. She also published two novels, Everything You Know (1999) and Notes on a Scandal (2003), which was one of six books shortlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize in 2003.

Zoë Heller now lives in New York with her husband, screenwriter Larry Konner, and their two daughters.