Soviet actress of theatre and cinema, laureate of the Stalin Prize I degree (1946). She was the daughter of famous biologists Vladimir Alekseevich Vodyanitsky and Nina Vasilievna Morozova-Vodyanitskaya. In 1936-1939, she studied at Moscow State University (MSU). In 1944, she graduated from the acting faculty of S. A. Gerasimov All-Russian University of Cinematography (VGIK). After the success of the film Zoya (1944), where Vodianitskaya, still a student, played the role of Komsomol girl, Hero of the Soviet Union Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, she became part of the first Soviet delegation in the First Cannes Film Festival.