Elka Nikolova was born in Bulgaria and studied psychology at the University of Sofia before she moved to the United States in 1994. In 2000 she received her MA in Media Studies, focusing on film production at the New School in New York. She has worked in film and television in New York since 2003. Her first documentary film, BINKA: TO TELL A STORY ABOUT SILENCE, 2007, about the pioneering female director Binka Zhelyazkova premiered at MOMA in New York. She co-produced and edited the documentary film ANGEL WAGENSTEIN: ART IS A WEAPON (2017) directed by Andrea Simon. The film premiered at the New York Jewish Film Festival in 2017. In 2021 she completed A QUESTION OF SURVIVAL, a 55-minute documentary film exploring the legacy of the Holocaust in the Balkans through the conflicting childhood memories of three Bulgarian Jews from New York. She is currently in post-production on THE DRESSMAKER a 75-minute documentary film about the Gatenio family from New, Sephardic Jews with roots in Bulgaria and Greece exploring further the topic of the Holocaust in the Balkans.