Kriti Kharbanda (born 29 October 1990) is an Indian film actress and model known for her work in Kannada, Hindi and Telugu language films. She has received accolades including a SIIMA Award and two nominations for the Filmfare Award South. After beginning her career as a model, Kharbanda made her acting debut in 2009 with the Telugu film Boni.
Kriti Kharbanda was born in Delhi to Ashwani Kharbanda and Rajni Kharbanda . Her family is Punjabi. She has a younger sister Ishita Kharbanda and a younger brother Jaiwardhan Kharbanda, who is the co-founder of Paper Plane Productions. She moved to Bengaluru in the early 1990s with her family. After completing her high school in Baldwin Girls High School, she attended Bishop Cotton girl's school, ISC, before graduating from Sri Bhagawan Mahaveer Jain College. She holds a diploma in jewellery designing.
According to her, she was very active in cultural activities during school and college. As a child, she was also featured in a number of advertisements and she continued modelling while in school/college, stating that she "always loved doing TV commercials". Her prominent modelling campaigns during her college days were for Bhima Jewellers, Spar, and Fair and Lovely. Her photo on the Spar billboard caught the attention of NRI director Raj Pippala who was looking for a heroine for his film, and that paved the way for her acting career. She said that she had initially no plans of becoming an actress and that it was only because of her mother's encouragement that she considered it seriously.