She started her career in the silent film era, usually playing the screen character of an Ingénue, an innocent and passionate young woman.

Nato Vachnadze was born in Warsaw, then in the Russian Empire as the daughter of a Georgian father George Andronikov from the Andronikashvili family and a Polish mother Ekaterina Slivitskaya.

Her father, an officer in the Russian army, was killed in a skirmish with a band of Chechen outlaws (abrek) in 1912.

Nato Vachnadze's younger sister, Kira (1908–1960), also became an actress and married the writer Boris Pilnyak.

[3] Indicators for her stardom are the appearance of her name in film advertisements and the publication of two pulp biographies printed in nearly 100,000 copies.

Vachnadze in contrast played glamorous women with private lives – presumably her exotic Georgian origin allowed her more freedoms on the screen than a Russian actress would have had.

She was named an Honored Artist of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and received three Orders of the Red Banner of Labour.

[6] Shortly before her death the poet and writer Boris Pasternak addressed her during a visit to his country house.