She graduated from the acting faculty of the Moscow Art Theatre School, Yeryomin's course, in Moscow. From 1998 to 2004 she was an actress at the Moscow Pushkin Drama Theatre. She directed several productions. A year before graduating from the School, Elena made her film debut with an episodic role in the short film "The Seagull," based on Anton Chekhov's comedy of the same name. In 1998 Novikova joined the Moscow Pushkin Drama Theatre, where she worked until 2004. During this time the actress was remembered by audiences for her roles as Dora in Yuri Yeryomin's production "The Terrorists," Helen in Kirill Serebrennikov's staging "Frank Polaroid Pictures," and Courtney Love in Yuri Grymov's "Nirvana." The actress can be seen in the TV series "The Turkish March" and "The Murderer's Diary" (2002), "Reflections" (2004), "Icon Hunters" (2005), and in the films "The Wedding" (2002), "The Best Movie" (2007) and "A Very Russian Detective" (2008).

Growing bored with acting, Elena left the drama theatre as an actress and took up teaching, and in 2005 she directed the play "Galka Motalko" based on a play by Natalia Vorozhbit. Disillusioned with acting, the sharp-tongued Elena and her colleagues decided to create something between a theatre and a comedy club. Thus in 2015, at the Meyerhold Centre, "Zimmermann's Stand Up" was born. Novikova became not only the project's driving force but also a prominent participant.