Keerthy Suresh
Born/Date of Birthday: 17 October 1992
Place of Birth: Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Alma mater: Pearl Academy
Occupation: Actress
Parents: Menaka Suresh, G. Suresh Kumar
Siblings: Revathi Suresh

Keerthy Suresh (born 17 October 1992) is an Indian actress who appears predominantly in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films. She won the National Film Award for Best Actress for portraying actress Savitri in the Telugu film Mahanati (2018). She has also received three SIIMA Awards, one Filmfare Award South, and two Zee Cine Awards Telugu among others for her performance in various films.

Keerthy is the daughter of Malayalam film producer G. Suresh Kumar and actress Menaka. Keerthy began her career as a child actress in the early 2000s and returned to films after studying fashion design. She had her first lead role in the 2013 Malayalam film Geethaanjali. She went on to star in films such as Ring Master (2014), Idhu Enna Maayam (2015), Rajini Murugan (2016), Nenu Sailaja (2016), Remo (2016), Thodari (2016), Bairavaa (2017), Nenu Local (2017), Thaana Serndha Kootam (2018), Mahanati (2018), Sarkar (2018), Penguin (2020), Miss India (2020) and Rang De (2021).

Early life and family
Keerthy was born on 17 October 1992 in Chennai (then called as Madras), Tamil Nadu, India. Her father G. Suresh Kumar is a filmmaker of Malayali descent, while her mother Menaka is an actress of Tamil origin. She has an elder sister Revathy Suresh. Until class four, Keerthy did her schooling in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. She then studied in Kendriya Vidyalaya, Pattom, Thiruvananthapuram before coming back to Chennai to join the Pearl Academy, where she completed her degree in fashion design. She also spent time on an exchange program in Scotland for four months, before completing a two-month internship in London. Despite making a career in acting, she has stated that she was also "seriously considering a career in designing". Keerthy also plays the violin.

Acting career
Child artist (2000–2002)
In the early 2000s, Keerthy worked as a child actress in a few of her father's productions, such as Pilots (2000), Achaneyanenikkishtam (2001) and Kuberan (2002) and some television serials.

Debut in Malayalam cinema (2013–2014)
11 years after Kuberan, she made her debut as a lead actress in Priyadarshan's horror film Geethaanjali, in which she had a dual role. She was still studying during that time and shot for Geethanjali during her semester break. Reviews on the film and her performance were mixed, with Sify writing that she "does put in some effort but makes only a limited impression in a double role", while Rediff wrote that she "has got a plum role but whether she impresses with her acting prowess is another matter". In 2014, Keerthy had her next release Ring Master, directed by Rafi of Rafi Mecartin duo, in which she shared screen space with Dileep. She played a blind girl, which she said was much more challenging than her double role in Geethanjali. The film was a commercial success, being termed a "super hit" by Sify.

Early work in Tamil and Telugu cinema (2015–2017)
In 2015, Keerthy accepted her first projects outside of Malayalam and signed on to appear in several Tamil film projects simultaneously. Her first film release was A. L. Vijay's romantic comedy Idhu Enna Maayam (2015), opposite Vikram Prabhu, though the film did not perform well at the box office. Her busy schedule throughout 2015 meant that she had to opt out of films which she had already started working on, including Krishna's Maane Thaene Paeye and Deekay's Kavalai Vendam, in order to accommodate bigger projects. She consequently worked on two films with Sivakarthikeyan in quick succession, Rajini Murugan and Remo, while also playing the lead role in Prabhu Solomon's Thodari, alongside Dhanush.

Her Telugu debut was planned to be Ainaa Ishtam Nuvvu. However, the film is delayed since 2015, with reports of release after September 2020 under a new title Janakitho Nenu. Subsequently, the debut was the 2016 film Nenu Sailaja with actor Ram Pothineni. In January 2017, Keerthy appeared in Bairavaa, opposite actor Vijay and directed by Bharathan. She also appeared in Tamil film Paambhu Sattai and Telugu film Nenu Local in 2017.

Public recognition and widespread success (2018–present)
Her first release in 2018, was Agnyaathavaasi in Telugu. Her first Tamil film in 2018 was Thaana Serndha Kootam, in which she played opposite Suriya, for the very first time. The film opened to positive reviews and became a hit. She also acted in Nag Ashwin-directed epic Mahanati where she portrayed the late southern actress Savitri and for which her performance has received critical acclaim. Her performance in the film featured in the list of "100 Greatest Performances of the Decade" by Film Companion.

In late 2018, she appeared in three consecutive commercial films, Saamy 2 opposite Vikram directed by Hari, Sandakozhi 2 opposite Vishal directed by N. Lingusamy and Sarkar opposite Vijay, directed by AR Murugadoss. In mid-2019, she made a cameo appearance in the Nagarjuna starrer Manmadhudu 2, which was directed by Rahul Ravindran. In 2020, she appeared in the thriller film Penguin, which released on Amazon Prime due to the COVID-19 pandemic and in the drama film Miss India which released on Netflix.

In 2021, Keerthy starred in the Telugu language film Rang De opposite Nithiin.

As of 2021 In August 2020 she signed on to appear alongside director Selvaraghavan in Saani Kaayidham, which marks his acting debut. In January 2021, she started filming for Parasuram directorial Sarkaru Vaari Paata, alongside Mahesh Babu. Keerthy will also appear opposite Tovino Thomas in the Malayalam film Vaashi. She signed a project named Dasara with Nani