Yana was born into a family of professional photographers in Bulgaria and has always shown an interest in photography and film making. After studying fine arts at school for eight years, Yana attended the University of Salento, Italy, where she graduated with a BA in Science and Technology of Fine Arts: Cinema, Theatre, Music and Fashion. She is fluent in Bulgarian and Italian, and also speaks French.

Since graduating from the University of Kingston MA in Filmmaking Yana has worked on various television programmes in production and film distribution as well as producing and directing multiple short films. SLEEPING DOGS is the first feature film Yana produced, which received nominations from the British Independent Film Awards and was selected for several international film festivals including the Raindance Film Festival.