After the death of her father, a KZ survivor, her mother emigrated to the USA with her, where her mother went on a hunger strike in order to get a visa for her.
After finishing High School, Elina studied acting in New York and played in several successful theatre productions before starting her film career in 1991 with Theory of Achievement. Some of her notable roles are Diana Reiter in Schindler's List (1993), Iris in Six Ways to Sunday (1997), and Anne Labels in The Wisdom of Crocodiles (1998).
