Vidya Balan (born 1 January 1978) is an Indian actress who appears in Bollywood movies. Balan, who began her career starring in many music videos, soap operas and many commercials, made her acting debut in the Bengali film, Bhalo Theko (2003), for which she won critical acclaim. She later made her Hindi film debut with Parineeta (2005), for which she received a Filmfare Best Female Debut Award, and received her first commercial success with Rajkumar Hirani's Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006).

Vidya Balan was born into an Iyer Family at Palakkad, Kerala to P. R. Balan (Vice President of ETC Channel) and a housewife mother. Vidya also has an elder sister named Priya. In a video interview, she stated that she is "extremely spiritual", and visits temples every Friday.

Her movie career started when she was signed to appear in the Malayalam film Chakram, alongside Mohanlal but the movie was shelved. After that, she was signed for a Tamil film, Run, but for reasons undisclosed, she was dropped after a first schedule and replaced by Meera Jasmine. When Chakram was restarted with Prithviraj in the lead, Meera Jasmine was chosen ahead of Balan again. Balan was dropped from her second Tamil movie Manasellam opposite Srikanth, on the grounds of 'non-performance' and was replaced by Trisha Krishnan.

She then turned to television advertising. From 1998 onwards, she appeared in numerous television ads, many of which were directed by Pradeep Sarkar. She also took supporting roles in music videos, appearing with singers and bands such as Euphoria, Shubha Mudgal, and Pankaj Udhas. Balan also portrayed the role of Radhika Mathur in a few episodes of the first season of Hum Paanch, but was later replaced by Amita Nangia at the end of the first season.

In 2003, she appeared in the Bengali film, Bhalo Theko, for which she won the Anandalok Puraskar Best Actress award in Kolkata. Balan next made her Hindi film debut in the critically acclaimed Parineeta. In that Film her performance was acclaimed by critics, earning her a Filmfare Best Female Debut Award and a nomination for Filmfare Best Actress Award. After the success of her first two films, the same producer who dropped her from Manasellam was keen to sign her opposite Kamal Hassan for Dasavathaaram but she rejected the offer and Asin Thottumkal was signed instead. In 2006, she appeared opposite Sanjay Dutt in the blockbuster film Lage Raho Munna Bhai. Once again her performance was well received by critics and the film went on to become the second highest grossing film of that year.

Mani Ratnam's critically acclaimed Guru was Balan's first release in 2007, in which she played a woman suffering from Multiple sclerosis. The film did very well at the box office[6] and her role was appreciated. Her next two releases, Salaam-e-Ishq: A Tribute To Love (2007) and Eklavya: The Royal Guard (2007) failed to do well[6] but the latter was selected as India's official entries to the Oscars for the 80th Academy Awards. Balan's last two releases of the year, Heyy Babyy (2007) and Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007) fared very well at the box office.

Her current project is entitled Chenab Gandhi directed by Vibhu Puri and written by Bhavani Iyer, who also wrote for Black. A departure from romance, this songless film revolves around three characters played by Amitabh Bachchan, Rajeev Khandelwal and Vidya Balan and centers around Indian freedom fighter, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, also known as Frontier Gandhi.

Director Nikhil Advani announced in late January 2009 that he is to work with Vidya. Chand Bhai will be the title of this film and Akshay Kumar will co-star. The film is based on juveline deliquency.