Leda Semyonova was born on 25 June 1939 in Leningrad. In 1967 she graduated from the Department of Philology at the Leningrad University.

Since 1969 she has been working as assistant film editor at the Lenfilm Studio. She has done film editing for over than thirty films.

She has been working with Alexander Sokurov since 1983.

Film editor for the following films of Sokurov:

Documentaries:
1978-1988 – "Maria" (Maria)
1986-1988 – "Moskovskaya Elegia" (Moscow Elegy) (with L. Feiginova, T. Belousova, A. Zhikhareva, L. Volkova)
1989 – "Sovetskaya Elegia" (Soviet Elegy)
1990 – "Petersburg Elegy" (Petersburg Elegy)
1990 – "K sobytiyam v Zakavkazye" (On the Events in the Transcaucasian Region. Leningrad Chronicle. Newsreel No. 5. Special Issue)
1991 – "Primer intonatsii" (An Example of Intonation) (with I. Kiselyova)
1992 – "Elegia iz Rossii" (An Elegy from Russia)
1996 – "Rober. Schastlivaya Zhizn" (Robert. A Fortunate Life)
1997 – "Smirennaya Zhizn" (A Humble Life)
1997 – "Otkrytie Pamjatnika Dostoevskomu" (The St.Petersburg Diary: Inauguration of a Monument to Dostoevsky)
1998 – "Kvartira Kozintseva" (The St.Petersburg Diary: Kosintsev's Flat)
1998 – "Povinnost" (Confession. From the diaries of the commander of a ship, IN 5 PARTS)
1998 – "Besedy s Solzhenitsynym" (Dialogues with Solzhenitsyn)

Feature films:
1978-1987 – "Odinoky Golos Cheloveka" (The Lonely Voice of a Man) (with A. Bespalov - 1978)
1983-1987 – "Skorbnoe Beschustvie" (Painful Indifference. "ANAESTESIA PSYCHICA DOLOROSA")
1986 – "Ampir" (Empire) (with L. Volkova, N. Alexandrova)
1988 – "Dni Zatmeniya" (Days of the Eclipse)
1989 – "Spasi i Sohrani" (Save and Protect)
1992 – "Kamen" (Stone)
1993 – "Tikhie Stranitsy" (Whispering Pages. After the Russian 19th century prose)
1996 – "Mat i Syn" (Mother and Son)
1999 – "Moloch"
2000 – "Telets" (Taurus)