A veteran of Kannada cinema, M.S. Umesh`s acting career spans over five decades and 350 movies. He started out as a child artist, debuting with a lead role in the 1960 film Makkala Rajya. Subsequently, Umesh established himself as a versatile artist who was at ease playing both serious character roles and outright comedic roles. His performance in the 1975 anthology film Katha Sangama earned him the Karnataka State Film Award for Best Supporting Actor that year. The children`s film Nagarahole (1977), the comedy Guru Shishyaru (1981), Apoorva Sangama (1984), the romantic drama Shravana Banthu (1984) and the comedy Golmaal Radhakrishna (1990) were some of the actor`s other notable film credits in the years that followed.

Other significant acting credits in recent times include Hagalu Vesha (2000), the comedy Venkata in Sankata (2009), Jackie (2010), Badmaash (2016), Shathaya Gathaya (2018) and Premasura (2019).