Shriya Saran was born to Pushpendra Saran and Neeraja Saran in Hardwar, Uttarakhand on September 11, 1982. Her father worked for the Central Government and her mother was a teacher. She has an elder brother, Abhiroop. Shriya had completed her studies in the schools her mother taught in Haridwar and Delhi. She later completed Bachelors degree in literature from Lady Shri Ram College in Delhi.

Shriya's mother is a trained dancer who in turn coached Shriya in Kathak and Rajasthani folk dance. She later joined a guru, Shovana Narayan for Kathak dance.

The camera bug had bitten Shriya when she was in college. Her dance teacher recommended her for a role in the music video of Renoo Nathan's ‘Thirakti Kyun Hawa’. The video got her first acting chance in Ramoji films’  ‘Ishtam’.  Even though the movie failed miserably she went on to sign four movies including Santosham beside Nagarjuna. The movie was a super hit and it turned the table for Shriya in Tollywood.

In 2003, Shriya appeared in three languages – Telugu, Hindi and Tamil. She made her Bollywood debut in a supporting role in her first Hindi film, Tujhe Meri Kasam, starring debutants Ritesh Deshmukh and Genelia D'Souza in leading roles. Her Tamil film debut happened with Enakku 20 Unakku 18, alongside Tarun and Trisha, which was simultaneously shot in Telugu as Nee Manasu Naaku Telusu. She appeared in 8 Telugu movies that includes one with Balakrishna – Chenna Kesava Reddy and super hit movie, Nuvve Nuvve.

From 2003 to 2007, her party continued in Tollywood. She acted almost beside every top star in Tollywood. Some of her prominent films are – Tagore beside Chiranjeevi, Nenunnanu and Boss beside Nagarjuna, Subash Chandra Bose beside Venkatesh, Arjun beside Mahesh Babu, Naa Alludu beside NTR, Shivaji with Rajinikanth, Bhageeratha beside Ravi Teja and Baalu ABCDEG beside Pawan Kalyan. Acting with so many top heroes is one of the rare achievements in Telugu for any heroine during that time after Simran.

After 2007, Shriya slowly started concentration on Bollywood and also offers started to decline for her in Telugu due to her unavailability. Slowly she started to confine herself to item numbers, special appearances and small movies from then. In 2008, Shriya made her English debut with the American-Indian co-production The Other End of the Line. She also appeared in one more English film, Midnight's Children in 2012. In 2014, she made a comeback in Telugu with Akkineni Multistarer Manam. Shriya has delivered one of the finest performances in Manam. She later followed it up with a little role in Gopala Gopala in which she paired up with Victory Venkatesh and the movie is a big success.