She began attending Columbia University in 2011 and graduated with a degree from the theater program in May 2015.
In 2014, Nef was on the cover of Frische Magazine. That same year, she was placed at number 68 on Dazed's 100 list. Nef also moved to the top of the Dazed Readers 100, ranking #1 overall, and appeared in the i-D Pre-Fall Issue twice.
In 2015, The Forward newspaper included her in the Forward 50, a list of the year's fifty most influential Jewish-Americans.
In January 2017, Nef starred in a television commercial for the L'Oréal Paris True Match line alongside Blake Lively, Lara Stone and Xiao Wen Ju. The campaign was premiered at the 2017 Golden Globe Awards telecast.
Elle printed special collectors’ covers for their September 2016 issue, and one of them featured Nef, which was the first time an openly transgender woman had been on the cover of a major commercial British magazine.
