Born and raised the south of New Zealand (Dunedin), Isabella moved to Auckland in 2015 to study. Isabella completed a conjoint BA/BE(Hons) in French and Electrical Engineering in 2019 and a PhD investigating the acoustics and pronunciation of the /r/ sound in te reo Māori (the Māori language), both at the University of Auckland.

He pepeha:
Ko Hikurangi te maunga.
Ko Waiapu te awa.
Ko Ngāti Porou te iwi.
Ko Te Aitanga a Mate te hapū.
Ko Hiruharama te marae.

Isabella has contributed to a number of projects relating to Māori language speech analysis and technology development at the University of Auckland. These have included acoustic analysis of kapa haka (a Māori performing arts style), the development of a Māori text-to-speech (TTS) system, and the development of a Māori-English code-switching detection system.

In her spare time, Isabella enjoys playing guitar, collecting craft hobbies, learning new languages, and travelling.