Kavya Madhavan in Blue Churidar stills

Kavya was born on 19 September 1984 in the village of Nileshwaram in Kasargod district, Kerala, India, to P. Madhavan and Shyamala. She attended Nileswaram GLP School and entered the film industry as a child artist. She learned dancing during her school days and participated in competitions. She was a Kalathilakam in a Sub District Schools Youth Festival.She currently resides in DD Village, Thammanam, Ernakulam, Kerala, India.

She completed her schooling in National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS).

She first appeared as a child actor in Kamal's film Pookkalam Varavayi (1991), she was just 7 years of age when she acted in the movie. Her talent was soon recognised, and she was offered other projects such as Pavam IA(1994) and Azhakiya Ravanan (1996). It was Azhakiya Ravanan directed by Kamal which got her got more public attention. She did a lot of movies after that mostly as a child actor.

She was offered the female lead in Chandranudikkunna Dikhil (1999) which was the second movie by director Lal Jose who also assisted Kamal in Azhakiya Ravanan. She was in ninth standard when she did the movie.^[5] The movie was an instant hit due to the versatile cast, music and story narration and brought both Kavya and Dileep into the limelight.

After her leading role, she became popular in the Malayalam film industry. It has been claimed that she was the busiest female actress in Malayalam. She is also a trained dancer and has won many awards and accolades.

After the success of Chandranudikkunna Dikhil, Kavya and Dileep become very popular pairing Malayalam cinema, producing several big hits and the pair went on to do 18 movies together.^[6]Some of their popular movies include Thenkasipattanam (2000), Darling Darling (2000), Meesa Madhavan (2002) which was one of biggest grosser of the year and was directed by Lal Jose, Mizhi Randilum (2003) in which she played a double role, Sadanandante Samayam (2003), Thilakkam (2003)directed by Jayaraj, Runway (2004) directed by Joshiy, Kochi Rajavu(2005), Lion (2006) again directed by Joshiy, Chakkara Muthu (2006), Inspector Garud (2007), Paappi Appacha (2010), Vellaripravinte Changathi (2011). Most of their movies were in the romantic comedy genre.

Soon after the divorce with Nishal went on act with her most successful partner onscreen Dileep for Pappy Appacha.Later on she acted in many movies with veteran Superstars of Malayalam cinema such Mammootty and Mohanlal. She also acted in multi-starrer movies like Christian Brothers and China Town.

She got critical acclaim for her performance of the role of Ganga in Perumazhakkalam for which she won 2004 Kerala State Film Award for Best Actress and for the role of Ashwati in Gaddama for the role of house maid working in Saudi Arabia. The movie was based on a feature by K. U. Iqbal, published in Bhashaposhini.The movie was directed by her mentor Kamal and she got her second Kerala State Film Award for Best Actress for 2011. She also won 2011 Kerala Film Critics Awards for Best Actress, Amrita-FEFKA Film Awards for Best Actress, Best Actress-Malayalam cinema in 59th Filmfare Awards South and Best Actress in Thikkurissy Foundation Awards. She was also nominated in National film award for Best Actress but lost out in the final round. She also was cast in Adoor Gopalakrishnan movie Naalu Pennungal in which she played a supporting role.

Though she had many offers from Tamil cinema, she was very reluctant to act due to her busy schedule in Malayalam. Her first was Kasi (2001) which was the remake of Vinayans Vasanthiyum Lakshmiyum Pinne Njaanum. She went on to act in En Mana Vaanil and Sadhu Miranda and enjoyed moderate success.

She wrote lyrics for the song "En Khalbillulloru Pennaanu" for the film One Way Ticket. She sang her first movie song for the Malayalam film Matinee (2012).