Emma Nova was born on October 29, 1995, as Emma Drogunova in Tyumen, Russia, and grew up in Berlin. She made her on-screen debut in 2007 in an educational film about obesity and eating disorders, "Dick & Dünner." This was followed by appearances in a commercial and two short films before she landed a supporting role as young Margarete Löwe in the 2012 TV miniseries "Das Adlon – Eine Familiensaga." Her lead performance in the coming-of-age short film "Nicht den Boden berühren" (2013) earned her the Best Actress award at the Cinemaiubit Student Film Festival in Bucharest.  

In the years that followed, Nova—who performed under her birth name Drogunova until 2024—appeared in numerous TV productions. In the "Nord bei Nordwest" episode "Käpt’n Hook" (2014), she played the victim of a human trafficker, while in the "Wolfsland" episode "Ewig Dein" (2017), she portrayed a Polish sex worker. She also delivered a powerful performance as a Kosovar teenager whose family is murdered by right-wing extremists in Stephan Lacant’s award-winning drama "Toter Winkel" (2017).  

On the big screen, Nova appeared in smaller roles in the drama "In the Name of My Daughter – The Kalinka Case" (FR/BE/DE 2016) and the tragicomedy "Back for Good" (2017). She played an extroverted vlogger in the road movie "Vielmachglas" ("A Jar Full of Life," 2018) and had a leading role as the unrequited love interest of the titular character in the historical drama "Der Trafikant" ("The Tobacconist," AT/DE 2018).  

In 2019, Nova was recognized as one of ten European Shooting Stars at the Berlinale. That same year, she won the Rising Talent Award at the Eat My Short Film Festival in Hagen.  

Her subsequent TV roles included an antagonistic high school bully in the "Tatort" episode "Kein Mitleid, keine Gnade" (2020), a member of a family of drug dealers in "Der Zürich-Krimi: Borchert und der Tote im See," and a participant in a wilderness therapy program in the eight-part series "Wild Republic" (2021).  

Nova also took on major film roles, such as in the lesbian love story "Bonnie & Bonnie" (2019) and Kida Khodr Ramadan’s father-daughter drama "In Berlin wächst kein Orangenbaum" (2020). She had smaller parts as a nurse in Ramadan’s medical drama "Égalité" (2021) and in "Manta Manta – Zwoter Teil" (2023).  

For her portrayal of an alleged rape victim in "Nichts, was uns passiert" (2023, TV), Nova won a Grimme Award in 2024, alongside writer-director Julia C. Kaiser. That same year, she appeared as a murder suspect in the "Tatort" episode "Dein gutes Recht" and as a pregnant drug addict in the critically acclaimed social drama "Vena," which earned multiple awards.