Anna Zemtsova started her career as an actress in the film of Khanzhonkov Studio Boulevard Slush (1918), directed by Boris Chaikovskii. She used the pseudonym Anna Li. From 1922 to 1924, Zemtsova supported Vsevolod Pudovkin, which family was succumbing to tuberculosis. Pudovkin assured that she encouraged him for pursuing a career as a filmmaker. She married Pudovkin from 1924 until the death of the director in 1953.