Konkona Sen Sharma is an acclaimed National Award winning Indian actress. Konkona is the daughter of Mukul Sharma (a science writer and journalist) and Aparna Sen (an actress and film director). She also has an older sibling Kamalini Chatterjee. Konkona's maternal grandfather, Chidananda Dasgupta, is a film critic, scholar, professor, writer and one of the co-founders of the Calcutta Film Society. Her grandmother Supriya Dasgupta is a cousin of legendary modern Bengali poet Jibanananda Das. Konkona has a degree in English from St. Stephen's College, Delhi which she received in 2001. She was a student of the Modern High School for Girls, Calcutta, as well as the Calcutta International School.

Konkona made her debut as a child artist in the film Indira. In 2000, she made her adult debut in Bengali film Ek Je Aachhe Kanya, in which she played a negative character. It was followed by a role in Rituporno Ghosh's acclaimed film Titli, opposite her mother Aparna Sen. She became a known face when she starred in the film Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, directed by Aparna Sen. The film was a success in multiplexes and was a favourite with the critics. Konkona's performance as a Tamil housewife in this movie got her the National Film Award for Best Actress. This was followed by the critically acclaimed film, Page 3 (2005), though the film was an average performer at the box office. Her role drew a lot of praise and she became a more familiar face to the movie-going public. She won the Zee Cine Award Best Female Debut for this performance, which was her first act in commercial cinema.

She followed it up with even more acclaimed performances in 15 Park Avenue (2005) and Omkara (2006). For the latter, she received the Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award. Her next release Deadline: Sirf 24 Ghante (2006) got average reviews. Following this, Konkona acted in Dosar, a highly acclaimed Bengali film by Rituporno Ghosh, which premiered at several international film festivals. She won the best actress award at Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council (MIAAC) Film Festival for this film.

Her first release of 2007, Traffic Signal (2007) performed poorly at the box office, but she received good reviews for her performance. Her second released film of 2007, Life in a... Metro, was released to good reviews and emerged as a hit in India. Her performance as a confused girl, who is looking for Mr. Right, was praised highly and she won her second Filmfare Award for this performance.