Catherine Tresa is a famous South-Indian film actress. Known for being selective about her movies, she has paved her way in Kollywood with the success of her Tamil film debut, Madras. Catherine is primarily seen in Kanada, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam films. Before pursuing acting as a career full-time, Catherine has modeled for brands that are famous in the southern part of India.

Early Life
Catherine was born to Frank Mario Alexander and Tresa Alexander in Dubai on September 10, 1989. Catherine`s family has a Malayali Roman-Syrian Catholic ancestry. She moved to Bangalore for higher studies and trained to play the piano, sing, dance and ice skate. While in Dubai, Catherine was an Emirates Environment volunteer. She started modeling at an early age. In 2014, her brother, Christopher Alexander died after committing suicide in Bangalore.

Movie Career
In 2010, Catherine made her debut with a Kannada film, Shankar IPS opposite Duniya Vijay. She then went on to act in two Malayalam films, The Thriller and Uppukandam Brothers Back in Action. In her 2011 Kanada movie Vishnu, she was known to play a contrasting character to her personality. In 2012, her Kanada movie Godfather opposite actor Upendra Rao earned her, her first Filmfare Awards (South) nomination in the Best Supporting Actress category. Her performance in the Telugu film Iddarammayilatho won her a few rave reviews. Catherine forayed into the Tamil film industry (Kollywood) in 2014 with the movie Madras opposite Karthi Sivakumar, for which she went on to win the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut - South. Her 2015 Telugu multi starrer release Rudhramadevi, a 3D epic historical film, received positive reviews and was the fifth-highest opening-day grossing film that year in India. Ilaiyaraaja composed the background score and the film`s soundtrack. The movie was released worldwide and dubbed in Malayalam and Hindi languages.

After the huge success of Rudramadevi, in 2016, Catherine in her first release of the year collaborated with director Pandiraj for the action thriller Kathakali also featuring Vishal in the lead role. The film, which released on 14th January 2016 got average reviews. The Hindu, stated, "Kathakali is a fairly watchable thriller, where two things work in the favor of the film. One, two-hour running time and two, the focus." Later, in the same year, the actress starred alongside Atharvaa and Tarun Arora in the Tamil action thriller Kanithan, which was directed by T.N. Santhosh. Although much was expected from the movie, it only got average critical reviews and was a decent earner. Her 2017 release includes Katha Nayagan, a Tamil comedy directed by Muruganandham and Nene Raju Nene Mantri, a Telugu political thriller, which is written and directed by Teja. Her 2019 projects include Neeya 2 and Vadaladu. Her 2020 release includes World Famous Lover. Her 2021 releases include Bhala Thandanana, Bimbisara and Macherla Niyojakavargam.