Nithya Menen was born on 8 April 1988 in Bangalore to Malayali parents who settled in Karnataka. She was educated at Poorna Prajna School and Mount Carmel College, Bangalore. As a child, Nithya acted in a French-Indian English film named Hanuman, at the age of 10, playing the younger sister to Tabu's character. She initially wished to become a journalist but found journalism unappealing, so she pivoted to filmmaking. She enrolled in a cinematography course at the Film and Television Institute of India in Pune. During the school's entrance exam, she met director B V Nandini Reddy, who convinced Menen to take up acting.
In 2006, Nithya started her acting career in a supporting role with the Kannada film 7 O' Clock and in 2008 while she was in 10th standard, the film Aakasha Gopuram, directed by National Film Award-winning director K P Kumaran, marking her Malayalam debut in a leading role in which she was paired with Mohanlal. She played a supporting role in Kannada and Malayalam films.
In 2011, her first Telugu release was director Nandini Reddy's romantic comedy Ala Modalaindi. The film opened to favourable reviews by critics and turned out to become a sleeper hit, she also sang two songs for the soundtrack album of the film. Following Ala Modalaindi, she starred in Santosh Sivan's historical fiction Urumi which gained positive remarks. She next appeared in ad-filmmaker Jayendra's bilingual venture Nootrenbadhu, which was made and released in Tamil and Telugu(as 180).
Nithya's next Telugu romance film Ishq with Nitin Reddy gave her CineMAA Award for Best Actress (jury) and a nomination at the SIIMA Awards. She was later seen in 5 Malayalam films: Karmayogi, Poppins, T K Rajeev Kumar's Thalsamayam Oru Penkutty, Amal Neerad's Bachelor Party, and Ustad Hotel where she paired up for the first time with Dulquer Salmaan.
In 2013, she starred in three Telugu films, Okkadine, Jabardasth, and Gunde Jaari Gallanthayyinde, and one Kannada movie Mynaa. She made a cameo in the Malayalam movie Bangalore Days, which became the highest-grosser of that year. In 2015, she paired up with Sharwanand for the Telugu movie, Malli Malli Idi Rani Roju, eventually receiving her Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress South. She did minor roles in Son OF Satyamurthy directed by Trivikram Srinivas, Kanchana 2 directed by and starring Raghava Lawrence and Rudhramadevi where she shared scenes with Anushka Shetty. She appeared opposite Dulquer Salmaan in two films in 2015, 100 Days of Love, a romantic Malayalam film, and OK Kanmani, a Tamil film, dubbed also in Telugu as Ok Bangaram, directed by Mani Ratnam.
In 2016, Nithya starred in three Tamil films, 24, K S Ravikumar's bilingual project titled Kotigobba 2 opposite Sudeep and science-fiction thriller Iru Mugan. In Telugu, she starred in Okka Ammayi Thappa opposite Sundeep Kishan and Janatha Garage opposite Junior NTR. In 2017, Tamil film Mersal opposite Vijay got her Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress – Tamil at 65th Filmfare Awards South.
In 2018, she appeared in an anthology psychological thriller Awe, where she became the first mainstream South Indian actress to play a LGBTQ character who is a psychologist. The film opened to unanimous critical acclaim with her performance garnering much praise. In 2019, she made her Hindi debut with Mission Mangal alongside Akshay Kumar and Vidya Balan. In 2020, she starred alongside Udhayanidhi Stalin and Aditi Rao Hydari in Mysskin's Psycho. She also made her OTT debut in the Amazon Prime series Breathe: Into the Shadows alongside Abhishek Bachchan and Amit Sadh which received mixed to negative reviews, however, she was praised for her role as a desperate mother. She received her first nomination for 'Best Actor, Series (Female): Drama at the Filmfare OTT Awards.
Her recent films, Ninnila Ninnila, Bheemla Nayak opposite Pawan Kalyan, romantic drama film Thiruchitrambalam opposite Dhanush were commercial successes at the box office. Till today acted in more than 50 feature films and in six different languages: Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, English, and Telugu. In her acting career, Nithya has won three Filmfare Awards South, two Nandi Awards, and two South Indian International Movie Awards.
