This producer of high-toned genre films of the late 1980s and 90s usually worked in collaboration with Martin Scorsese (her husband from 1985-91). After dropping out of Barnard College, De Fina got her start in the industry as a production assistant on such films as "Little Murders" (1971), "The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3" (1974) and "An Unmarried Woman" (1978). She swiftly climbed the industry ladder to executive producer by working in a variety of capacities, such as production coordinator ("The Next Man", 1976; Woody Allen's "Interiors", 1978), assistant director ("Gilda Live", 1980) and unit manager ("Prince of the City", 1981), on over twenty films. De Fina was also an associate producer on staff for comedian Alan King.

De Fina got her first credit as an associate producer on "Spring Break" (1982) and "The New Kids" (1985), both low-budget genre productions of exploitation auteur Sean S Cunningham (best known as the producer-director of "Friday the 13th" 1980). She first worked with Scorsese in 1983, as post-production supervisor on "The King of Comedy", and followed up with a succession of Scorsese projects. De Fina was co-producer of the poolroom drama "The Color of Money" (1986), Michael Jackson's music video "Bad" (1987), the controversial "The Last Temptation of Christ" (1988), Scorsese's "Life Lessons" segment of "New York Stories" (1989) and the dark thriller "Cape Fear" (1991).

De Fina graduated to executive producing with Scorsese's commercial breakthrough "GoodFellas" (1990). That same year, she executive produced Stephen Frear's "The Grifters", the first feature from Scorsese's production company and the English filmmaker's first film shot in the U.S. Although De Fina and Scorsese split up personally in 1991, they continued working together professionally. The two co-produced John McNaughton's gangster comedy "Mad Dog and Glory" (1993), and--under the newly-formed Cappa/De Fina Productions--De Fina co-produced the Scorsese-directed "The Age of Innocence" (1993) and "Casino" (1995).