Gayathrie Shankar

Gayathrie was born and brought up in Bangalore. She is half Malayali.

Gayathire made her screen debut with the psychological thriller 18 Vayasu (2012), and gained recognition for her work in Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom opposite Vijay Sethupathi, in the same year. In 2013 she starred in two films, Ponmaalai Pozhudhu and Mathapoo. In 2014, she appeared in Rummy (2014), a 1980s college love story opposite Inigo Prabhakaran. After a two year hiatus, she appeared in the 2017 film Puriyatha Puthir reuniting with Vijay Sethupathi. In 2018, she had two releases, a dark comedy, Oru Nalla Naal Paathu Solren and drama film Seethakaathi. That year, Gayathrie also made her web debut with Vella Raja opposite Bobby Simha.

Gayathrie had five releases in 2019. She first appeared in the films Chithiram Pesuthadi 2, Super Deluxe, K- 13 and Oththa Seruppu Size 7 (where she had a voice role). She later appeared in the web series Fingertip. In Super Deluxe, she played a transgender's wife opposite Vijay Sethupathi. Kirubakaran Purushothaman of India Today was appreciative of her performance and expressions. In 2021, she had a special dance appearance in Tughlaq Durbar.

The year 2022 marked a turning point in her career with several successful films. She first played a secret agent's wife in Vikram opposite Fahadh Faasil. The film emerged as one of the highest-grossing Tamil film of all time. Her long delayed film Maamanithan was released in the same year. Gayathrie then expanded to Malayalam films with Nna Thaan Case Kodu, playing a reformed thief's lover opposite Kunchacko Boban. Jose K George of The Week noted, "Gayathrie is praiseworthy. Although she does not have much to do in the first two acts, she has quite a few interesting lines in the third act, and the actor pulls it off with much self-assurance." The film was a box office success and won her the SIIMA Award for Best Female Debut, Malayalam. Her last release that year was Udanpaal.

In 2023, Gayathrie appeared in Bagheera opposite Prabhudeva, and in the Malayalam film Corona Papers opposite Shane Nigam. In the same year, she played a young terrorist in the Hindi series Jaanbaaz Hindustan Ke. Ganesh Aaglave of Firstpost noted, "Gayathrie as Tasleena will make you hate her portrayal with her impeccable act." In 2024, Gayathire first appeared in a cameo as a singer in the Hindi-Tamil bilingual Merry Christmas. She then played the lead in Pechi. Abhinav Subramanian of The Times of India stated that she "excels" in her well-written role.

Films

• All films are in Tamil unless otherwise noted.

Web series