 Filler was lead singer in several rock and roll bands and a founding member of two celebrated New Zealand punk cabaret groups, "The Ratz" and "Debbie and the Dum Dums" with Derek Ward, Miles McKane, and Sarah Pierse.Also played music in the Backstreet Women's Theatre, a company formed by feminists in the New Zealand Women's Movement, reacting against a prominent anti-abortion bill at the time in New Zealand, which was overturned.Left New Zealand to study theatre in London but stayed in New York when she discovered Stella Adler, Uta Hagen, and Deborah Hedwall.