Graduating from Moscow State University she went to work for a prime time new programa "Vremya" (Time) on Russian State Television. She then went on to work for a cultural news program "Namedni" (This Week) on Independent Television (NTV), the most highly rated network in Moscow. She got her Masters of Fine Arts degree in Film Production at the School of Cinema-Television at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. In Los Angeles, she worked in research on several documentary features, including kindertransport (Warner Bros.) by Academy Award–winning documentarian Mark Harris, and Kent State by Academy Award–nominated producer Mark Mori (Single Spark Pictures).