Having successfully made her presence felt across South Indian cinema and Bollywood, Priya Anand is an Indian film actress who started out as a model before she ventured into films. Even though she predominantly works in Tamil films, she has managed to gain the appreciation of Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu and Hindi audiences with her work. Her most notable performances include her debut film Vaamanan in Tamil, Leader in Telugu, and the Sridevi-starrer box office hit English Vinglish.

Early Life
Priya was born in Chennai in 1986 to Radha and Bharadwaj Anand. She was brought up in Chennai and Hyderabad. She was ambitious about working in the film industry from her childhood. She moved to the US where she pursued a course in Communications and Journalism at SUNY Albany. To fulfill her dream of venturing into the movie business, she returned to India in 2008, and started modelling. She featured in several television advertisements like Prince Jewellery, Nutrine Maha Lacto, and Cadbury Dairy Milk.

Personal Life
Reports suggest that Priya Anand was dating actor Gautham Karthik and they have been in a relationship for a while.

Movie Career
The Tamil action-thriller movie Vaamanan (2009) marked her debut in the film industry. Directed by debutant I. Ahmed, Priya played a lead role as the girlfriend of a young carefree boy (Jai). Even though she gained popularity among the Tamil audience, the movie fared averagely at the box office. At the start of the next year, Priya starred in Rajesh Lingam`s memoir-drama film Pugaippadam, as one of the friends in a college gang. However, the movie failed to achieve success at the box office and received only mixed reviews. Priya Anand forayed into Telugu cinema with Leader, once again in a lead role opposite Rana Daggubati, who debuted with the film. She also shared screen space with Richa Gangopadhyay, being the other female lead in the movie. Not only was Leader one of the most hyped films of the year, but it turned out to be a major hit, with praises for Priya`s portrayal of a television channel reporter. The actress followed this up with another Telugu film Rama Rama Krishna Krishna, under the direction of Sriwass, alongside prominent stars like Ram Pothineni and Bindu Madhavi.

Priya Anand had one release in 2011, the Tamil-Telugu bilingual romantic drama 180, in which she starred opposite Siddharth and Nithya Menen. She played an interior designer from San Francisco who gets married to AJ (Siddharth), but he leaves her when he is detected with cancer. He moves to Chennai where a photojournalist (Nithya Menen) falls in love with him. The year 2012 marked the actress` debut in Bollywood with the box office hit movie English Vinglish. Sridevi played the protagonist in the film whereas Priya Anand was her niece who supports her dream to learn English and helps her pass the English-speaking course. For her performance in the film, Priya was nominated for the Zee Cine Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Female and Star Guild Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

The actress kick-started 2013 with Priyadarshan`s action movie Rangrezz, a remake of the Tamil film Naadodigal. Her second Bollywood project in the year was the sleeper hit Fukrey, in which she shared screen space with Pulkit Samrat, Varun Sharma, Ali Fazal, Manjot Singh, and Richa Chadda. However, her role in the Tamil film Ethir Neechal as a school teacher and the love interest of the male protagonist Kunjithapatham (Sivakarthikeyan), won her applauses. The movie was well-received by audiences and critics. Later, she was seen in the romantic comedy Vanakkam Chennai opposite Shiva, which gained popularity for its song `Chennai City Gangsta`, and went on to receive positive to mixed critical reviews.

After a successful string of movies in 2013, Priya Anand`s first film in 2014 came in the second half of the year with Arima Nambi. In the film, she starred opposite Vikram Prabhu, son of actor Prabhu Ganesan. She played a college student who gets abducted, and Arjun (Vikram Prabhu), in an attempt to trace her, ends up in a dangerous situation. The movie also marks the legendary drummer Sivamani`s debut as a music director. The actress` two other releases in the year - Irumbu Kuthirai and Oru Oorla Rendu Raja, failed to gather good critical or audience appreciation.

Priya Anand was then cast by director Aishwarya Dhanush in the 2015 thriller film Vai Raja Vai as part of an ensemble cast including Gautham Karthik, Vivek, Taapsee Pannu, Gayathri Raguram and Daniel Balaji. This film revolves around an engineer who falls in trouble due to gambling, and was declared a box office hit. Priya concluded the year with a guest appearance in the adult comedy film Trisha Illana Nayanthara that starred G. V. Prakash Kumar, Anandhi and Manisha Yadav in the lead roles.

In 2017, she was seen in the Malayalam supernatural fiction movie Ezra starring Prithviraj Sukumaran in the lead. She also starred as the female lead opposite Gautham Karthik in the action-drama Muthuramalingam. Her other project in the year includes the Kannada movie Raajakumara alongside Puneeth Rajkumar. Her 2018 projects include Orange. Her 2019 release includes Adithya Varma.