Elita Kļaviņa was a journalist when in the early 1990s she turned to acting. Now she is one of the leading actresses in Latvia, permanently employed with the New Riga Theatre. Elita has performed leading roles in more than sixty theatrical performances and ten feature films. In 2012, she received the Latvian Annual Theatre Award and in 2018 – the Latvian National Film Award, both in the Best Actress category.

In 2019, Elita graduated from the National Film School of the Latvian Academy of Culture in Film Directing with the feature documentary Zoryana Horobraya. The comingof- age story about a young woman having to choose between her loved ones had its international premiere at the International Film Festival Message to Man 2019 (St. Petersburg), where it also received Special Jury Mention. The film was screened at several international film festivals and received the Best Student Film Award at the 2019 Latvian National Film Awards. In March 2022, she premiered her latest documentary Sisters in Longing set in a women’s prison.