Honored Artist of Russia (1999). Her mother was a variety singer, her father a couplet singer and tap dancer who performed with Mironova and Menaker. She graduated from the elite music school at the Moscow Gnessin College in the piano class (teacher E. F. Gnessina). After finishing school, while her parents were on tour, she enrolled simultaneously at the Moscow Higher Theater School named after B. V. Shchukin and at VGIK (Vladimir Zeldin prepared her for the entrance program). She graduated from the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography (1961, class of O. Pyzhova and B. Bibikov). Her film debut (in her first year at the institute) was a small role in Grigory Roshal's film "Walking Through Torment.

Gloomy Morning" (1959). At 18 she married film director Yuri Chulyukin, in whose film "The Royal Regatta" (1966) she played Alyona. She became especially popular after playing Natasha in the lyrical comedy "Three Plus Two" (1963). The actress's dramatic talent was vividly displayed in the role of Polina Lakhnovskaya in the well-known multi-part television film by directors V. Uskov and V. Krasnopolsky, "The Eternal Call" (1973–1983). Kustinskaya's last film work was the film "Svetik" (1989). Natalya Kustinskaya was considered one of the most beautiful actresses of Soviet cinema of the 1960s–80s. She was an actress of the Moscow Theater-Studio of the Film Actor ("Kiss Me, Kate!" and other productions).