Nyla Usha

For close to ten years before films, Nyla Usha worked as an RJ at the Dubai radio station Hit 96.7, which she joined in 2004. Born Nyla Usha Gopakumar on 25 March 1984, she is from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, and studied at Holy Angel's Convent and All Saints College there. Salim Ahamed, whom she had interviewed several times in Dubai, offered her the female lead opposite Mammootty in Kunjananthante Kada (2013), where she played Chithira, a woman in an unhappy marriage. She is an actress and television host as well as a radio jockey. Punyalan Agarbattis, her second release that year, is the one she has said brought her recognition. Female leads followed in Aashiq Abu's crime film Gangster (2014) and Deepu Karunakaran's thriller Fireman (2015). Between 2016 and 2017 she hosted the Malayalam version of Minute to Win It on Mazhavil Manorama, and in 2018 she played Effymol in Diwanjimoola Grand Prix. Lucifer cast her as television executive Arundathi Sanjeev in 2019, and the same year she was Mariam, one of the title characters, in Joshiy's Porinju Mariam Jose. Her awards include an Asiavision Award for Kunjananthante Kada and a Vanitha Film Award for Porinju Mariam Jose. She also appears in Jithin K Jose's upcoming thriller Mayan, starring Jayasurya.